Visualizing Coevolution With CIAO Plots

Abstract

In a previous paper [2], we introduced a number of visualization techniques that we had developed for monitoring the dynamics of artificial competitive co-evolutionary systems. One of these techniques involves evaluating the performance of an individual from the current population in a series of trials against opponents from all previous generations, and visualizing the results as a 2-d grid of shaded cells or pixels: qualitative patterns in the shading can indicate different classes of co-evolutionary dynamic. As this technique involves pitting a Current Individual against Ancestral Opponents, we referred to the visualizations as CIAO plots. Since then, a number of other authors studying the dynamics of competitive co-evolutionary systems have used CIAO plots or close derivatives to help illuminate the dynamics of their systems, and it has become something of a de facto standard visualization technique. In this very brief paper we summarise the rationale for CIAO plots, explain the method of constructing a CIAO plot, and review important recent results that identify significant limitations of this technique.

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