The effect of building block construction on the behavior of the ga in dynamic environments: A case study using the shaky ladder hyperplane-defined functions

The shaky ladder hyperplane-defined functions (sl-hdf’s) are a test suite utilized for exploring the behavior of the genetic algorithm (GA) in dynamic environments. We present three ways of constructing the sl-hdf’s by manipulating the way building blocks are constructed, combined, and changed. We examine the effect of the length of elementary building blocks used to create higher building blocks, and the way in which those building blocks are combined. We show that the effects of building block construction on the behavior of the GA are complex. Our results suggest that construction routines which increase the roughness of the changes in the environment allow the GA to perform better by preventing premature convergence. Moreover, short length elementary building blocks permit early rapid progress.