Psychologist Anthony John Sanford obtained his B.Sc. with first class honours from the University of Leeds in 1966. He was named Medical Research Council Scholar at the Applied Psychology Unit and Pembroke College, Cambridge, and under the supervision of Donald Broadbent, he completed his Ph.D. in 1970. Following this, he went to the University of Dundee as a postdoctoral fellow and was later appointed Lecturer in Psychology. In 1974 Sanford joined the faculty at the University of Glasgow, where he continues to serve as Professor of Psychology. His research interests include the study of human understanding and the nature of language.

Sanford’s principal works include Models, Mind and Man: Aspects of the Psychology of Understanding, Intuition and Thinking (1983), Cognition and Cognitive Psychology (1985), The Mind of Man: Models of Human Understanding (1987) and as editor, The Nature and Limits of Human Understanding: The 2001 Gifford Lectures at the University of Glasgow (2003).