analysis-by-synthesis (n.)

A theory of SPEECH PERCEPTION which credits listeners with an internal, language-specific mechanism that responds to incoming speech by selecting certain ACOUSTIC cues, and then attempting to synthesize a replica of the input. When this is achieved, the synthesis has, in effect, carried out an analysis of the input. Such a procedure, it is argued, has the merit of being able to explain how listeners resolve the acoustic variability in signals, stemming from the differences between speakers, contexts, etc.