Information Science: A Third Feedback Framework

Feedback has been a fundamental element in many cybernetic and social models. Information science is also exploring feedback as a key concept within information seeking and retrieving models. This article first presents an overview of the feedback concepts within the frameworks and models of cybernetics and the social sciences. The article then proposes that an enhanced feedback concept is developing within the framework and models of information seeking and retrieving, and the development of a cognitive viewpoint of information, illuminating the information seeking and retrieving context. The three feedback frameworks and concepts (cybernetic, social, and interaction) are then compared based on their conceptualization of the feedback loop and notion of information. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.