Harry McGurk

Who was Harry McGurk?

Harry McGurk was a British cognitive psychologist. He is known for his discovery of the McGurk effect, described in a 1976 paper with his research assistant John McDonald, while he was a senior developmental psychologist at the University of Surrey.

He was born in Hillington, Glasgow on 23 February 1936. After training at the University of Glasgow, he became a probation officer in Edinburgh.

He married Betty Hannah. She was invited to go out to the Church of Scotland mission in Nigeria to use her accountancy skills and for two years he became involved with the management of the school and hospital.

On their return, he studied psychology at University of Strathclyde, gaining a BA, an MSc, and a PhD for his seminal work on infant perception.

Following a period as a Research Fellow at Princeton University, he joined the University of Surrey, as a lecturer in child development and later was appointed to a personal chair in the same subject.

Between 1990 and 1994 he was Director of the Thomas Coram Research Unit at the Institute of Education, University of London. In 1994, he was appointed as Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies in Melbourne.