Perceptual magnet effect in German boundary tones

The experiment described in this paper tests for the perceptual magnet effect within the categories of high and low boundary tones in German, referring to question and statement, respec- tively. The experiment is based on previous work in which the categorical status of the two German boundary tones had been evaluated. The results found there showed that there was a discrimination ability within categories which could not be explained by the classical definition of categorical perception. The results reported in the present paper show that a perceptual magnet exists in the statement category but not in the question category.