Feedforward is the provision of context of what one wants to communicate prior to that communication. In purposeful activity, feedforward creates an expectation which the actor anticipates. When expected experience occurs, this provides confirmatory feedback.

Etymology

The term was developed by I. A. Richards when he participated in the 8th Macy conference. I. A. Richards was a

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

with a particular interest in

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

Pragmatics In linguistics and the philosophy of language, pragmatics is the study of how Context (linguistics), context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship ...

is a subfield within

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

which focuses on the use of context to assist meaning. In the context of the Macy Conference, Richards remarked "Feedforward, as I see it, is the reciprocal, the necessary condition of what the

cybernetics Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...

and automation people call '

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause and effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handle ...

'."Richards, I. A. (1952). Communication Between Men: The Meaning of Language. In Heinz von Foerster (ed), Transactions of 8th Macy Conference - Cybernetics: Circular Causal and Feedback Mechanisms in Biological and Social System. New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation. Richards subsequently continued: "The point is that feedforward is a needed prescription or plan for a feedback, to which the actual feedback may or may not confirm." The term was picked up and developed by the cybernetics community. This enabled the word to then be introduced to more specific fields such as

control systems A control system manages, commands, directs, or regulates the behavior of other devices or systems using control loops. It can range from a single home heating controller using a thermostat controlling a domestic boiler to large industrial co ...

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

neural networks A neural network is a group of interconnected units called neurons that send signals to one another. Neurons can be either Cell (biology), biological cells or signal pathways. While individual neurons are simple, many of them together in a netwo ...

, cognitive studies and

behavioural science Behavioural science is the branch of science concerned with human behaviour.Hallsworth, M. (2023). A manifesto for applying behavioural science. ''Nature Human Behaviour'', ''7''(3), 310-322. While the term can technically be applied to the st ...

Different applications of feedforward

Control

Feed forward is a type of element or pathway within a control system. Feedforward control uses measurement of a ''disturbance input'' to control a ''manipulated input''. This differs from feedback, which uses measurement of any output to control a manipulated input.

Management

Feedforward has been applied to the context of management. It often involves giving a pre-feedback to a person or an organization from which you are expecting a feedback.

Neural network

feedforward neural network Feedforward refers to recognition-inference architecture of neural networks. Artificial neural network architectures are based on inputs multiplied by weights to obtain outputs (inputs-to-output): feedforward. Recurrent neural networks, or neur ...

is a type of artificial neural network.

Behavioral and cognitive science

Feedforward is the concept of learning from the future concerning the desired behavior which the subject is encouraged to adopt.

References

{{cybernetics Cybernetics