FAQ: What is Four-Stage Fixation Cleaning and should I use it?

[Jono]

The four-stage fixation cleaning procedure is a specialized method employed exclusively by reading researchers. Originally developed to address noise issues in early eye-tracking systems, this procedure is rooted in an in-house program pioneered in Avital Deutsch's laboratory at Hebrew University. Deutsch's work, in turn, draws inspiration from the methodologies employed by Keith Rayner at UMass. It is noteworthy that the realm of reading literature encompasses a diverse array of approaches to "cleaning" eye data, with each lab often having its own unique method. These cleaning procedures were primarily utilized with older or noisier eye trackers, aiming to rectify challenges in the fixation/saccade parsing algorithm resulting from data noise. However, with the advent of more advanced eye tracker models, these procedures are now deemed less essential and are typically unnecessary.

Using the four-stage fixation cleaning procedure is only recommended if you are performing reading research, and want to be able to compare / equate your reading measures with much earlier research.