Using a net to catch a mate: evolving CTRNNs for the dowry problem

  • Authors:
  • Elio Tuci;Inman Harvey;Peter M. Todd

  • Affiliations:
  • Centre for Computational Neurosciences and Robotics, School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, United Kingdom;Centre for Computational Neurosciences and Robotics, School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, United Kingdom;Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany

  • Venue:
  • ICSAB Proceedings of the seventh international conference on simulation of adaptive behavior on From animals to animats
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

Choosing one option from a sequence of possibilities seen one at a time is a common problem facing agents whenever resources, such as mates or habitats, are distributed in time or space. Optimal algorithms have been developed for solving a form of this sequential search task known as the Dowry Problem (finding the highest dowry in a sequence of 100 values); here we explore whether continuous time recurrent neural networks (CTRNNs) can be evolved to perform adaptively in Dowry Problem scenarios, as an example of minimally cognitive behavior [Beer, 1996]. We show that even 4-neuron CTRNNs can successfully solve this sequential search problem, and we offer some initial analysis of how they can achieve this feat.