Positional Effect of Crossover and Mutation in Grammatical Evolution

An often-mentioned issue with Grammatical Evolution is that a small change in the genotype, through mutation or crossover, may completely change the meaning of all of the following genes. This paper analyses the crossover and mutation operations in GE, in particular examining the constructive or destructive nature of these operations when occurring at points throughout a genotype. The results we present show some strong support for the idea that events occurring at the first positions of a genotype are indeed more destructive, but also indicate that they may be the most constructive crossover and mutation points too. We also demonstrate the sensitivity of this work to the precise definition of what is constructive/destructive.