Although all EH seem to have roughly the same shape (see fig. 10), we can ask whether flipping one particular bit changes the fitness in the same way. For instance, for all the optima, flipping the first bit from '0' to '1' causes a drop in fitness. More generally, flipping each bit, we compute the average and standard deviation of the difference in fitnesses; results are sorted into increasing average differences (see figure 13-a). The bits which are the more deleterious are the ones with the smaller standard deviation, and as **often**
as not, are in the schemata S. So, the common bits in the blok **seem to be** important to find good solution: for a metaheuristic, it would be of benefit to search in the subspace defined by the schema S.