Harry McGurk (23 February 1936 – 17 April 1998) was a British

cognitive psychologist Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of human mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, whi ...

. He is known for his discovery of the

McGurk effect The McGurk effect is a perceptual phenomenon that demonstrates an interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception. The illusion occurs when the auditory component of one sound is paired with the visual component of another sound, lea ...

, described in a 1976 paper with his research assistant John MacDonald, while he was a senior developmental psychologist at the

University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its Royal Charter, royal charter in 1966, along with a Plate glass university, number of other institutions following recommendations ...

Biography

McGurk was born in

Hillington, Glasgow Hillington (, )
is an area on the southwestern edge of ...

on 23 February 1936. After training at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, 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 The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

, 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 Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, 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 Sea captain, Captain Thomas Coram ( – 29 March 1751) was an English sea captain and philanthropist who created the London Foundling Hospital in Lamb's Conduit Fields, Bloomsbury, to look after abandoned children on the streets of London. It is ...

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. Harry McGurk died on 17 April 1998, in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, aged 62, from complications after a heart operation.

Publications

*The economic cost of child abuse and neglect in South Australia. 1998 *Staff-child ratios in care and education services for young children. 1995 *Project Charlie : an evaluation of a life skills drug education programme for primary schools. 1995 *Childhood social development : contemporary perspectives / edited by Harry McGurk. 1992 *Developmental psychology and the vision of speech. 1988 *What next? 1987 *Brain and behavioural development: interdisciplinary perspectives on structure and function / edited by Harry McGurk and John W. T. Dickerson. 1982 *Issues in childhood social development / edited by Harry McGurk. 1978 * Ecological factors in human development by International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development. Conference (3rd: 1975: University of Surrey). 1977 *Growing and changing : a primer of developmental psychology. 1975 *PhD Thesis: Oriental discrimination in infancy and early childhood. University of Strathclyde. Dept. of Psychology. Thesis, 1971

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mcgurk, Harry Academics of the University of Surrey 1936 births 1998 deaths Health professionals from Glasgow Alumni of the University of Strathclyde Princeton University fellows Academics of the UCL Institute of Education 20th-century British psychologists