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/feed"bak'/, n.1. Electronics.a. the process of returning part of the output of a circuit, system, or device to the input, either to oppose the input (negative feedback) or to aid the input (positive feedback).b. See acoustic feedback.2. the furnishing of data concerning the operation or output of a machine to an automatic control device or to the machine itself, so that subsequent or ongoing operations of the machine can be altered or corrected.3. a reaction or response to a particular process or activity: He got very little feedback from his speech.4. evaluative information derived from such a reaction or response: to study the feedback from an audience survey.5. Psychol. knowledge of the results of any behavior, considered as influencing or modifying further performance. Cf. biofeedback.6. Biol. a self-regulatory biological system, as in the synthesis of some hormones, in which the output or response affects the input, either positively or negatively.[1915-20; n. use of v. phrase feed back]
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▪ biologyin biology, a response within a system (molecule, cell, organism, or population) that influences the continued activity or productivity of that system. In essence, it is the control of a biological reaction by the end products of that reaction.Similar usage prevails in mathematics, particularly in several areas of communication theory. In every instance, part of the output is fed back as new input to modify and improve the subsequent output of a system. See also cybernetics.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
