Why People Fish...

Part 1

“Why do people fish?”

We were about to embark on a day of fishing with my brother on a recent trip to the east coast when my husband posed the question. He, unlike my brother and me, had not inherited the fishing-obsession gene that runs strong in my family.* He is not opposed to fishing, actually enjoys it in moderate quantities, and will fish with me in the ponds in our backyard. For the past two years he has good-naturedly obtained a New York State Marine Registration which enables him to partake in the marathon fishing day my brother and I engage in when we see each other once a year. We meet on the south shore of Long Island, the area where my brother and I honed our fishing skills growing up, but an area neither of us live close to any more.

I could have answered the question with some sweet brother-sister bonding explanation (I do love my brother.) or said something about the exquisite beauty of the bays and grassy islands I used to take for granted when I lived there but now really miss (They are beautiful and I do miss them.) but I didn't even think of these as reasons at the time. Instead, based on my years of fishing experience and observations, a 40-year old random bit of Psychology 100 popped out of my mouth:

“Variable Interval Reinforcement,” I answered...

In behavioral psychology, operant conditioning uses various schedules of reinforcement to shape behavior. Rewards given on a schedule keep mice (and people with fishing rods) repeating certain behaviors. Lab rats will press levers, run mazes, even endure electrical shock, for food. People with fishing rods will cast for hours, in the dark, under difficult weather conditions, for the possible thrill of catching a fish.

Continuous reinforcement, where the desired behavior is rewarded every time it occurs, causes the behavior to occur at a frequent rate, but if the reward is removed, the behavior will quickly cease. But variable interval reinforcement encourages a behavior that is much harder to extinguish, rewarding the behavior after an unpredictable amount of time has passed. A rat in a behavioral science lab might be rewarded with a pellet of food after his first bar press following a one minute interval, receiving another pellet for the first response following a five minute interval, and a third food pellet for the first response following a two minute interval. Variable interval reinforcement encourages slow, steady, repeat behavior. Variable interval reinforcement is why people fish...

My husband's question was, I think, partly motivated by the memory of last year's fishing trip – beautiful fall weather, good tide, positive fishing reports, yet not a single bite for any of us. Is weather, tide and someone else's opinion of whether the fish might show up enough to keep us coming back to try again? Thanks to variable interval reinforcement, yes...

Tomorrow: How this year's reinforcement schedule played out.

*Hooked, May 10, 2013

Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn. - Chuck Clark