The Role of Selection in Evolutionary Algorithms

The primary goal of this paper is to understand the dynamics of interaction in a population of individuals using a simple but representative evolutionary approach. We study the effect of different parameters, like population size, strength of selection and different selection regimes, on the performance of an evolutionary algorithm in terms of speed of fixation and fixation to suboptimal individuals. We look at evolution as a process of adaptation rather than an optimization, thus our evolutionary model is closer to the Population Genetics approach than to the most commonly used Genetic Algorithm model.