abstract = "Genetic Programming (GP) is a general purpose
bio-inspired meta-heuristic for the evolution of
computer programs. In contrast to the several
successful applications, there is little understanding
of the working principles behind GP. In this paper we
present a performance analysis that sheds light on the
behaviour of simple GP systems for evolving
conjunctions of n variables (AND_n). The analysis of a
random local search GP system with minimal terminal and
function sets reveals the relationship between the
number of iterations and the expected error of the
evolved program on the complete training set.
Afterwards we consider a more realistic GP system
equipped with a global mutation operator and prove that
it can efficiently solve AND_n by producing programs of
linear size that fit a training set to optimality and
with high probability generalise well. Additionally, we
consider more general problems which extend the
terminal set with undesired variables or negated
variables. In the presence of undesired variables, we
prove that, if non-strict selection is used, then the
algorithm fits the complete training set efficiently
while the strict selection algorithm may fail with high
probability unless the substitution operator is
switched off. In the presence of negations, we show
that while the algorithms fail to fit the complete
training set, the constructed solutions generalise
well. Finally, from a problem hardness perspective, we
reveal the existence of small training sets that allow
the evolution of the exact conjunctions even in the
presence of negations or of undesired variables.",