positive feedback

English

Noun

positive feedback (uncountable)

1. A situation where some function of the output of a system, process, or mechanism is fed back in a manner that tends to increase any divergence of the output from its initial value.
   1. (physics) A feedback loop in which the output of a system is amplified with a net positive gain and added to the input signal before the main amplifier.
   2. (figurative) Feedback which builds upon previous feedback.
      • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 131:

        The decision to include wild cereals in the collection may have been initially a random act of gathering, but once that decision had been made it triggered a runaway system of positive feedback in which the entire culture was transformed.

Synonyms

• regenerative feedback

Antonyms

• negative feedback
• degenerative feedback

Translations

a feedback loop

• Georgian: დადებითი უკუკავშირი (dadebiti uḳuḳavširi)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: paşragihandina erenî

• Romanian: reacție pozitivă f
• Russian: положи́тельная обра́тная связь f (položítelʹnaja obrátnaja svjazʹ)
• Slovak: kladná spätná väzba, pozítívna spätná väzba

See also

• chain reaction
• vicious circle, vicious cycle
• virtuous circle, virtuous cycle