The Evolutionary Origins of Hierarchy
Fig 4
P&CC networks adapt significantly faster and solve significantly more sub-problems in new environments.
In these experiments, networks first evolve to solve a problem perfectly in a base environment (left) and are then placed in a target environment (right) where they continue evolving to solve a different problem. The evolvability of PA and P&CC networks is quantified as the number of generations they take to solve the new problem perfectly. A pair of evolved networks is shown for both treatments. The left one shows the network with median hierarchy (here and elsewhere, rounding up) of 30 replicates in the base environment; the right one shows the median hierarchy network of the 30 runs in the target environment started with the network on the left. S5–S10 Figs show all network pairs.