feedback

n. information about a process or interaction provided to the governing system or agent and used to make adjustments that eliminate problems or otherwise optimize functioning. It may be stabilizing negative feedback or amplifying positive feedback. The term’s origins in engineering and cybernetics lend it a distinct connotation of input–output models that is not as strictly applicable to the wide variety of usages found in psychology, such as biofeedback, information feedback, and social feedback. Compare feedforward.

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Psychology term of the day

May 9th 2024

hierarchically nested design

any research design that involves several levels of sampling, such that the entities on the lower levels of the design are nested or subsumed within higher order groups. For example, a hierarchically nested design for an educational study might involve students (A), who are nested within classrooms (B), which are nested within schools (C), which are further nested within school districts (D). Several statistical procedures (e.g., analysis of variance, regression analysis, hierarchical linear models) also incorporate a hierarchical aspect. Also called hierarchical design; nested design.