Learning and evolution: factors influencing an effective combination

The mutual relationship between evolution and learning is a controversial argument among the artificial intelligence and neuro-evolution communities. After more than three decades, there is still no common agreement on the matter. In this paper the author investigates whether combining learning and evolution permits to find better solutions than those discovered by evolution alone. More specifically, the author presents a series of empirical studies that highlight some specific conditions determining the success of such a combination, like the introduction of noise during the learning and selection processes. Results are obtained in two qualitatively different domains, where agent/environment interactions are minimal or absent.