Informative feedback in jet-pilot control-stick motion

In many closed-loop systems in which a human operator forms a link, the operator adds a special component to the error signal in continuously monitoring the system transfer function. Such a signal component, known in cybernetics as informative feedback, was found to be characteristically present in the control-stick motion of jet-airplane pilots. It was found, furthermore, that the amplitude of this feedback signal is subject to a learning process and that the over-all phenomenon, which falls within the scope of both control engineering and psychology, is amenable to quantitative analysis.