Evolution of Communication in Mate Selection (2014)
Aditya Rawal, Janette Boughman and Risto Miikkulainen
A computational study is conducted to evaluate the hypothesis that mate selection is the evolutionary origin of communication. A population of neural networks is evolved for two cooperative tasks - mate selection and prey capture. Simple codes developed for mate selection serve as an effective stepping stone for prey capture but not vice versa. Mate selection followed by an additional prey capture task is also easier to evolve than both together from the beginning. This result suggests that mate selection may be a first step in the evolution of general communication systems in nature.
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To Appear In Proceedings of The Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE 14) , New York, USA, July, 2014 2014.
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Risto Miikkulainen Faculty risto [at] cs utexas edu
Aditya Rawal Ph.D. Alumni aditya [at] cs utexas edu