Mixing different search biases in evolutionary learning algorithms

Abstract

This work investigates the benefits of using different distribution functions in the evolutionary learning algorithms with respect to Artificial Neural Networks' (ANNs) generalization ability. We examine two modification of the recently proposed network weight-based evolutionary algorithm (NWEA), by mixing mutation strategies based on three distribution functions at the chromosome and the gene levels. The utilization of combined search strategies in the ANNs training implies that different step sizes determined by mixed distributions will direct the evolution towards good generalized ANNs. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.