Feedback is simple. Like most things, we just love to make them complicated.
Feedback is just feedback. It means when you do something, you get information back about that thing you did.
I create a podcast. You leave a review on iTunes. That’s feedback for me. I can use that feedback to either change what I’m doing or do more of what I’ve been doing.
Negative feedback might get me to do less of something.
Positive feedback might get me to do more of something.
Somebody leaves an iTunes review, “These are the best podcasts ever. I’ve learned so much. I owe Brian at least my first month’s salary.”
That might get me to do more podcasts. Positive feedback.
Someone else might leave an iTunes review, “This podcast stinks. All Brian does is talk about his kids. He can’t pronounce anything, and the music is terrible.”
This might get me to do less podcasts. Negative feedback.
Simple so far, right?
Now it gets a little more complicated. A feedback loop.
In a feedback loop, the first thing, let’s call that Thing A, causes the second thing, Thing B. Thing B now loops back and affects Thing A either positively or negatively.
In a positive feedback loop, Thing A would cause thing B and thing B would cause more of thing A, which would cause more of thing B, which would cause more of thing A, etc…… You can see how this would really ramp up the action.
In a negative feedback loop, Thing A would cause thing B and thing B would inhibit thing A. Slowing the whole thing down.
Let’s try an example:
Sally is four. She loves to build block towers. The bigger, the better. The taller, the better. She stares at them through her coke bottle glasses dreaming of getting the tower to touch the ceiling.
Timmy is Sally’s little brother. He loves knocking things over. He thinks it’s great to see how he can affect the world. How he can control the emotions of everyone in the entire house simply by knocking something over.
Sally is the living room working on her most magnificent creation ever. While her mother is folding laundry, she’s been stacking block after block. The base is 16 blocks wide, so it is very sturdy.
Just then her father, carrying Timmy, comes in through the front door.
“Hello family,“ he calls setting Timmy down on the floor.
Timmy takes off for Sally’s masterpiece at full speed. Before anyone even knows what’s happened, he barrels into the tower, and the blocks come tumbling down.
Sally is furious and swears never to build another tower again.
Negative feedback. Thing A causes thing B which inhibits Thing A from happening.
We could write an example of the same exact story as a positive feedback loop.
Sally is four. She loves to build block towers. The bigger, the better. The taller, the better. She stares at them through her coke bottle glasses dreaming of getting t tower to touch the ceiling.
Timmy is Sally’s little brother. He loves knocking things over. He thinks it’s great to see how he can affect the world. How he can control the emotions of everyone in the entire house simply by knocking something over.
Sally is the living room working on her most magnificent creation ever. While her mother is folding laundry, she’s been stacking bock after block. The base is 16 blocks wide, so it is very sturdy.
Just then her father, carrying Timmy, comes in through the front door.
“Hello family, “ he calls setting Timmy down on the floor.
Timmy takes off for Sally’s masterpiece at full speed. Before anyone even knows what’s happened, he barrels into the tower, and the blocks come tumbling down.
Sally and her brother laugh and laugh and laugh.
Sally builds another even bigger tower for Timmy to knock down. When he does, Sally starts to laugh all over again and begins building him another tower to destroy.
A positive feedback loop means that the actions amplify each other. Thing A causes thing B which causes more of Thing A.
The human endocrine system runs on feedback loops. but it is a little more complicated. Instead of only two steps, there are usually multiple steps and possibilities. This allows for regulation at any one step to influence the whole loop.
Things A is stress.
Thing B is the hypothalamus which secretes corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF)
Thing C is the pituitary which secretes adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)
Thing D is the adrenal glands which secrete cortisol.
You get stressed about a test as you walk in the door. You start to get nervous (Thing A). The hypothalamus kicks in and starts secreting CRF in response to the stress (Thing B). The pituitary sees the CRF and starts creating ACTH in response (That was thing C). The adrenal glands see all this ACTH and start cranking out cortisol (That was thing D). Now your bloodstream is flooded with cortisol. That increases available energy by raising blood sugar and encouraging the breakdown of stored fats and proteins.
Now the hypothalamus (thing A) notices these high levels of cortisol in the blood and says, “Oh, maybe that’s enough,” and it slows production of CRF. That slows production of ACTH which slows production of Cortisol.
Negative feedback loop. In this case, thing D inhibits Thing A and puts the brakes on.
One last example.
You buy The Final Step. You use it to help you on your EORs. You pass with flying colors. You decide to use TFS more. You use it to study each topic for you PANCRE. You’re doing better and better and remembering more and more, so you use it the week before your exam to cover everything one last time. You pass your exam with your highest score yet.
Positive feedback loop. LOL
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Brian Wallace