More on Computational Effort Statistics for Genetic Programming

In this contribution we take a look at the computational effort statistics as described by Koza. We transfer the notion from generational genetic programming to tournament-selection (steady-state) GP and show why, in both cases, the measured value of the effort often differs from its theoretical counterpart. It is discussed how systematic estimation errors are introduced by a low number of experiments. Two reasons examined are the number of unsuccessful experiments and the variation in the number of fitness evaluations necessary to find a solution among the successful experiments.