The usefulness of tag bits in changing environments

The paper explores the usefulness of adding the notion of tagging to a standard generational genetic algorithm for addressing issues associated with changing landscapes. Tag bits are used to dynamically evolve subpopulations that act as distinct species, in that mating only occurs between individuals with identical tags. Using Morrison's dynamic landscape generator (R. Morrison and K. De Jong, 1999), the interacting effects of population size and the number of available tag bits are studied. Preliminary results suggest that certain tagged population GAs show significant improvements over standard GAs.