Subject: Do We Want to Talk about the

Posted by Ashis Sen on 2/25/2006
In Reply To:Do We Want to Talk about the Posted by John Gunkler on 2/9/2006

Message:

Feedback comes to rectify the behavior of systems in accordance to the goals of the system. This is so since in life and nature probably there can be no reinforcing virtuous loops and vicious loops which do not come up against balancing loops dictated by the goals of the larger system.
If a child is pushed to give better results in class by encouragement then the child shows marked improvement and if pushed beyond a point, balancing loops take over and fatigue and demoralization could result in performance which is worse than the intial one. The capacity of the system (the childs physique etc.) could come into play.


Similarly Banks in their need for higher incomes invest in number of projects and if some major projects go bust, then make large losses due to non-fruition of the investments. However, the explicit goal of such investments is to make money. The speed, urgency etc. gives rises to risky investments as well as many other processes, set parallely in process to make money may result in making losses.

The behavior of the system here is contrary to the explicit goals set by the student and the teacher; yet as Jay Forrestor has pointed out beautifully, there are other limiting factors arising from different processes which come into play and produce the system behavior.

Another simple example on feedback is emotional changes we depict in our system resulting from change of emotions in other persons. Our behavior changes results in further behavioral and emotional changes in the other system. Since our brain is open to information and changes its state with relation to the information received like level of fear, happiness, focus etc. we need to be able to understand the impact of feedback to our human systems for superior performance. Especially in the field of education where impact of emotions can result in long term implications, teachers need to reinforce the good and the positive in students for better results.

Regards
Ashis Sen