Influence of selection on structure learning in markov network EDAs: An empirical study

Citation

Brownlee A, McCall J & Pelikan M (2012) Influence of selection on structure learning in markov network EDAs: An empirical study. In: Soule T & Moore J (eds.) GECCO'12 - Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation. GECCO '12: 14th annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation, Philadelphia, USA, 07.07.2012-11.07.2012. New York, NY: ACM, pp. 249-256. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2330200

Abstract
Learning a good model structure is important to the efficient solving of problems by estimation of distribution algorithms. In this paper we present the results of a series of experiments, applying a structure learning algorithm for undirected probabilistic graphical models based on statistical dependency tests to three fitness functions with different selection operators, proportions and pressures. The number of spurious interactions found by the algorithm are measured and reported. Truncation selection, and its complement (selecting only low fitness solutions) prove quite robust, resulting in a similar number of spurious dependencies regardless of selection pressure. In contrast, tournament and fitness proportionate selection are strongly affected by the selection proportion and pressure.