From recombination of genes to the estimation of distributions I. Binary parameters

The Breeder Genetic Algorithm (BGA) is based on the equation for the response to selection. In order to use this equation for prediction, the variance of the fitness of the population has to be estimated. For the usual sexual recombination the computation can be difficult. In this paper we shortly state the problem and investigate several modifications of sexual recombination. The first method is gene pool recombination, which leads to marginal distribution algorithms. In the last part of the paper we discuss more sophisticated methods, based on estimating the distribution of promising points.