Associative Constructive Evolution: Enhancing Metaheuristics through Hebbian-Learned Generative Guidance

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Lin, Shanxian, Nagata, Yuichi, Yang, Haichuan
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Lin, Shanxian
Nagata, Yuichi
Yang, Haichuan
author_facet Lin, Shanxian
Nagata, Yuichi
Yang, Haichuan
contents Metaheuristic algorithms such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) excel at exploring solution spaces but lack mechanisms to accumulate and reuse procedural knowledge from successful search trajectories. This paper proposes Associative Constructive Evolution (ACE), a framework that enhances metaheuristics through learned generative guidance. ACE introduces a Generative Construction Automaton (GCA) -- a probabilistic model over operation sequences -- coupled with the base metaheuristic in a synergistic loop: the metaheuristic explores and provides trajectory samples, while the GCA consolidates successful patterns and guides future exploration. Three mechanisms realize this cooperation: Hebbian weight consolidation that strengthens associations between co-successful operations, guided sampling that biases search toward learned high-quality regions, and symbolic abstraction that extracts frequent patterns into reusable macro-operations. Experiments integrating ACE with EA and PSO on molecular design and maze navigation demonstrate consistent improvements. ACE-PSO achieves a 27.5% increase in success rate while reducing convergence time by 49.6%. In molecular design, ACE-EA improves fitness by 10.1% with 126 chemically interpretable macro-operations automatically discovered.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_29774
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Associative Constructive Evolution: Enhancing Metaheuristics through Hebbian-Learned Generative Guidance
Lin, Shanxian
Nagata, Yuichi
Yang, Haichuan
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
I.2.8
Metaheuristic algorithms such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) excel at exploring solution spaces but lack mechanisms to accumulate and reuse procedural knowledge from successful search trajectories. This paper proposes Associative Constructive Evolution (ACE), a framework that enhances metaheuristics through learned generative guidance. ACE introduces a Generative Construction Automaton (GCA) -- a probabilistic model over operation sequences -- coupled with the base metaheuristic in a synergistic loop: the metaheuristic explores and provides trajectory samples, while the GCA consolidates successful patterns and guides future exploration. Three mechanisms realize this cooperation: Hebbian weight consolidation that strengthens associations between co-successful operations, guided sampling that biases search toward learned high-quality regions, and symbolic abstraction that extracts frequent patterns into reusable macro-operations. Experiments integrating ACE with EA and PSO on molecular design and maze navigation demonstrate consistent improvements. ACE-PSO achieves a 27.5% increase in success rate while reducing convergence time by 49.6%. In molecular design, ACE-EA improves fitness by 10.1% with 126 chemically interpretable macro-operations automatically discovered.
title Associative Constructive Evolution: Enhancing Metaheuristics through Hebbian-Learned Generative Guidance
topic Neural and Evolutionary Computing
I.2.8
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.29774