What is the most likely limitation cited by Watson and Hughes regarding generalizing the loudness effects?

• A. The prosody of persons with dysarthria may not show similar loudness effects
• B. Reciting a paragraph aloud is unlike spontaneous speech
• C. Several acoustic variables related to speech prosody were not included
• D. Only women were studied

Answer: (C)

Generalizing loudness effects depends on capturing the full range of cues that convey prosody. If several acoustic variables related to speech prosody were not included, the study could miss important interactions among loudness and other prosodic features such as pitch, duration, energy distribution, and spectral balance. Without a complete set of variables, the observed loudness effects might not hold in everyday or varied speech, where these cues vary together. This limitation directly limits how well the findings apply to spontaneous speech and different-speaking contexts. The other possibilities describe narrower issues (specific task differences or a homogeneous sample) but don’t address the core reason why generalization would be limited when key prosodic variables aren’t measured.