Mating pool

A mating pool is a concept used in evolutionary computation.

Typically, virtual populations are treated as a whole. An alternative approach is to separate only individuals who will produce offspring from the remainder of the current population. These are placed into a mating pool.

Potential parents are usually chosen by checking the candidates against some selection criteria. That is, fitness selection is performed separately before genetic operations. Children are created from parents chosen only from the mating pool.

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