JW Marriott Feedback App

The terms positive and negative feedback are defined in different ways within different disciplines.

1. the altering of the gap between reference and actual values of a parameter, based on whether the gap is widening (positive) or narrowing (negative).

2. the valence of the action or effect that alters the gap, based on whether it has a happy (positive) or unhappy (negative) emotional connotation to the recipient or observer.

The two definitions may cause confusion, such as when an incentive (reward) is used to boost poor performance (narrow a gap). Referring to definition 1, some authors use alternative terms, replacing positive/negative with self-reinforcing/self-correcting, reinforcing/balancing, discrepancy-enhancing/discrepancy-reducing or regenerative/degenerative respectively. And for definition 2, some authors advocate describing the action or effect as positive/negative reinforcement or punishment rather than feedback. Yet even within a single discipline an example of feedback can be called either positive or negative, depending on how values are measured or referenced.

This confusion may arise because feedback can be used for either informational or motivational purposes, and often has both a qualitative and a quantitative component. As Connellan and Zemke (1993) put it:

Quantitative feedback tells us how much and how many. Qualitative feedback tells us how good, bad or indifferent.