Word.ws English Dictionary

McGurk effect

McGurk effect noun: a perceptual phenomenon where, when the auditory component of one sound is paired with the visual component of another sound, a third and different sound is perceived.

Noun

McGurk effect (plural McGurk effects)

  1. A perceptual phenomenon where, when the auditory component of one sound is paired with the visual component of another sound, a third and different sound is perceived.
    • Finally, let us note two experiments that demonstrate a relation between the auditory and visual modalities that makes sense under the tight bond between particular articulatory and acoustic states implied by a phonological feature. In the so-called McGurk effect, subjects see a video display of a...1994 January, Michael Kenstowicz, “The Phonetic Foundations of Phonology”, in w:Phonology in Generative Grammar (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics), Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, →ISBN, section 4.5...
    • Conversely, and most crucially, McGurk effects for click consonant-vowel syllables were found to be equivalent to those for stop-vowel syllables. These results indicate that McGurk AV integration is strong for coarticulated stop consonant-vowel syllables, but much weaker for isolated release...2020, Catherine T. Best, “Perception of Non-native Click Consonant Contrasts: Implications for Theories of Speech Perception”, in Bonny Sands, editor, Click Consonants (Empirical Approaches to...

Examples of McGurk effect in a sentence

  • In the so-called McGurk effect, subjects see a video display of a head saying [ba] repeatedly: [ba], [ba], [ba].1994 January, Michael Kenstowicz, “The Phonetic Foundations of Phonology”, in w:Phonology in Generative Grammar (Blackwell Textbooks in...
  • Conversely, and most crucially, McGurk effects for click consonant-vowel syllables were found to be equivalent to those for stop-vowel syllables.2020, Catherine T. Best, “Perception of Non-native Click Consonant Contrasts: Implications for Theories of Speech Perception”, in Bonny...

Forms of McGurk effect

pluralMcGurk effects

Origin of McGurk effect

First described in 1976 in a paper by Harry McGurk and John MacDonald.

Questions about McGurk effect

What does McGurk effect mean?
McGurk effect means a perceptual phenomenon where, when the auditory component of one sound is paired with the visual component of another sound, a third and different sound is perceived.
How do you use McGurk effect in a sentence?
In the so-called McGurk effect, subjects see a video display of a head saying [ba] repeatedly: [ba], [ba], [ba].
What part of speech is McGurk effect?
McGurk effect is a noun.
What is the plural of McGurk effect?
The plural of McGurk effect is McGurk effects.

Words near McGurk effect in the dictionary

  1. McGuirls
  2. McGuirt
  3. McGuirts
  4. McGunnigle
  5. McGurk
  6. McGurk effect
  7. McGurk effects
  8. McGurks
  9. McGurn
  10. McGurns
  11. McGurren

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: McGurk effect (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “McGurk effect.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mcgurk_effect. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.