APA Dictionary of Psychology

computer programs used in the study of artificial life. Typically, a display is used on a computer screen, split into an array of cells, with an initial pattern of occupied cells. The pattern evolves through a sequence of steps according to certain rules (e.g., whether or not certain numbers of neighboring cells are occupied). Programs of this type have been used in investigations of such phenomena as social behavior and evolutionary development. [developed in the 1940s by Austrian-born U.S. mathematician John von Neumann (1903–1957)]