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Updated: Aug 10, 2026
26:43
Computer-Generated Animal Model Stimuli
Published on: July 29, 2007
Conditions enabling the evolution of inter-agent signaling in an artificial world
J A Reggia1, R Schulz, G S Wilkinson
1Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. reggia@cs.umd.edu
Artificial Life
|July 20, 2001
Summary
In an artificial world, agents evolved communication for food and predators. Environmental factors and evolutionary methods significantly influenced whether and how this grounded signaling emerged.
Area of Science:
- Computational ethology
- Artificial life
- Evolutionary computation
Background:
- Animal communication systems are complex and often involve signals that are both beneficial and costly.
- Previous research has explored animal signaling computationally, but less is known about the specific conditions favoring its evolution.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate environmental conditions promoting the evolution of grounded signaling in an artificial world.
- To determine how variations in evolutionary process assumptions affect communication emergence.
Main Methods:
- Simulated an artificial world with initially noncommunicating agents.
- Evolved agents to communicate about food sources and predators using computational methods.
- Varied environmental parameters (predator impact, food source characteristics) and evolutionary selection criteria.
Main Results:
- Predator alarm signals evolved when predators significantly impacted survival and signaling hindered predators.
- Food signaling was favored by hard-to-locate food sources with high nutritional value.
- Modifications to genetic algorithm selection (e.g., spatial locality, survival+fitness) influenced signaling evolution.
Conclusions:
- Environmental pressures and specific evolutionary mechanisms are critical for the emergence of grounded communication.
- Findings provide insights into artificial life research and can be related to real-world animal signaling behaviors.
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