Interactions and dependencies in estimation of distribution algorithms

In this paper, we investigate two issues related to probabilistic modeling in estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs). First, we analyze the effect of selection in the arousal of probability dependencies in EDAs for random functions. We show that, for these functions, independence relationships not represented by the function structure are likely to appear in the probability model. Second, we propose an approach to approximate probability distributions in EDAs using a subset of the dependencies that exist in the data. An EDA that employs only malign interactions is introduced. Preliminary experiments presented show how the probability approximations based solely on malign interactions, can be applied to EDAs.