STRATEGY-SPECIFIC BARRIERS TO LEARNING AND NONMONOTONIC SELECTION DYNAMICS

The replicator dynamics are generalized to allow for strategy-specific barriers to learning. The resulting dynamics satisfy neither payoff m onotonicity nor payoff positivity, but do satisfy weak payoff positivi ty. It is shown that initial states from which trajectories converge t o a rest point under the replicator dynamics may yield trajectories wh ich approach a stable limit cycle under the generalized replicator dyn amics. Furthermore, strategies which are strictly dominated by other p ure strategies may survive indefinitely along such nonconvergent paths . (C) 1998 Academic Press.