On the Baldwin Effect under Coevolution
This work addresses the problem of understanding evolutionary dynamics in multi-species systems for researchers in evolutionary biology and artificial life, but it is incremental as it extends existing models to coevolutionary scenarios.
The paper investigates the Baldwin effect, the interaction between learning and evolution, within a coevolutionary context where species' adaptations affect each other's fitness, using the NKCS model to show how learning amount and evolution rate influence behavior.
The potentially beneficial interaction between learning and evolution, the Baldwin effect, has long been established. This paper considers their interaction within a coevolutionary scenario, ie, where the adaptations of one species typically affects the fitness of others. Using the NKCS model, which allows the systematic exploration of the effects of fitness landscape size, ruggedness, and degree of coupling, it is shown how the amount of learning and the relative rate of evolution can alter behaviour.