feed forward

Definition 1

Reverse of a feedback, it is the 'self-fulfilling prophesy' process that turns logical cause-effect relationships upside down. For example, if people believe the stockmarket is going to rise, their purchases drive up the stock prices thus creating the very situation they believed will happen. Similarly, if they think a bank is going to fail, their withdrawal of deposits actually causes a healthy and strong bank to crash.

Definition 2

In industrial processes, a feed forward occurs when some output of an earlier step is fed into a step occurring down the line.