Revisiting genetic selection in the XCS learning classifier system

The XCS learning classifier system has traditionally used roulette wheel selection within its genetic algorithm component. Recently, tournament selection has been suggested as providing a number of benefits over the original scheme, particularly a robustness to parameter settings and problem noise. This paper revisits the comparisons made between the behavior of tournament and roulette wheel selection within XCS in a number of different situations. Results indicate that roulette wheel selection is competitive in terms of performance, stability and generated solution size if the appropriate parameters are used.