THE FIXATION OF EXPERIENCE^ 

 R. W. Gerard 



The tixation of experience is a wider topic than is learning, which is a 

 subhead under it. It inckides changes in an nidividual system, at all levels 

 from molecule to taxa or society, that have become irreversible under 

 single or repeated experiences and so have left some material record of a 

 past activity; and it includes racial changes that have cumulated over 

 generations of a self-reproducing system. It miderlies one of the three 

 universal attributes of all systems at all levels; 'becoming'. The architec- 

 ture oi any system, its inhomogenities at a given cross section of time 

 which remain reasonably constant over succeeding cross sections, its 

 'being', is the base of the behaviour or functioning of the system along 

 time. 'Behaving' represents the transient or functional responses of the 

 system to stimuli or stresses imposed by the environment and are rever- 

 sible, so that the system essentially reverts after the perturbations have 

 passed. When, however, the stimuli are sufficiently intense or repetitive or 

 meaningful to the system as to leave an irreversible change, and therefore 

 a material residue, the system undergoes a secular change along the 

 longitudinal time axis and has tixed experience. 'Becoming' thus encom- 

 passes individual development, racial evolution, cultural history, and 

 many other basic phenomena of orgs in general (niaterial systems) and of 

 animorgs ni particular (living material systems). 



Irreversible changes of individual units at the molecular level include 

 gene mutations and adaptive enzymes and antibodies. At the cellular level, 

 comes the whole process of cellular differentiation, including the fornia- 

 tion or lack of formation of particular organelles and particulates. At the 

 organ level, inductions and gradients and mechanical forces mold the 

 particular organs during cievelopment, just as their use through life leaves 

 behind hypertrophied soles or muscles, wrinkled and weathered skin, 

 bone shapes to meet functional strains, and the like. Engrams within the 

 nervous system are entirely comparable residues of experience. At the 

 individual level, come the collective processes of ageing, perceptual and 

 motor habits, conscious memories and the like. And at the group or social 

 level, individual cultures create customs, laws, languages, artifacts, libraries 

 and many other concrete entities or functional roles occupied by concrete 

 entities. 



1 Aided by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, U.S.P.H. 



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