Semantic bias in program coevolution

Abstract

We investigate two pathological coevolutionary behaviours, disengagement and cycling, in GP systems. An empirical analysis is carried out over constructed GP problems and the Game of Tag, a historical pursuit and evasion task. The effects of semantic bias on the occurence of pathologies and consequences for performance are examined in a coevolutionary context. We present findings correlating disengagement with semantic locality of the genotype to phenotype map using a minimal competitive coevolutionary algorithm. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.