codePasses {eyeRead}

Codes the Fixations as First Pass and Second Pass

Description

The fixations are coded as first pass and second pass with or without rereading as discussed in Hyönä, Lorch, and Rinck (2003) and Hyönä, and Lorch (2004).

Usage

codePasses(
  data,
  AOI,
  rereading = FALSE,
  fpx = NULL,
  fpy = NULL,
  origin = c("topLeft", "bottomLeft", "center", "topRight", "bottomRight"),
  fix_size = 42,
  fix_min = 3
)

Arguments

data

A data frame containing fixation information of an eye tracing experiment. Each row indicates a fixation.

AOI

The name or number of the column in data containing the name of the area of interest (AOI) that was fixated. If data contains one column per AOI, also a vector is accepted (see Details).

rereading

Logical. Indicating if the first pass fixations should be split according to forward and rereading (TRUE) or not (FALSE [Default])

fpx

The name or number of the column containing the x coordinate of the fixation point. Required if Rereading is TRUE.

fpy

The name or number of the column containing the y coordinate of the fixation point. Required if Rereading is TRUE.

origin

Character string specifying where the origin of the fixation coordinates fpx and fpy is located. The following values are possible: "topLeft" (default), "bottomLeft", "center", "topRight", "bottomRight".

fix_size

The size or acuity of the saccade. (default = 42; see Details)

fix_min

[optional] minimal number of fixations for first pass. (default = 3; see Details)

Details

This function takes a data frame containing information of an eye tracking reading exercise Each row indicates a fixation and the columns at least indicate the AOI that was fixated or if a specific AOI was fixated or not. Optionally it can indicate the x and y coordinates of the fixation point. The fixations in this dataset are then coded according to their pass status: first pass and second pass.

If AOI is a single value it indicates the name or the number of the column with the name of the respective area of interest (AOI) that was fixated. In this case, the AOI column consists of names or numbers identifying the AOI's. If AOI is a vector it indicates the name or number of the AOI columns. In this case the AOI columns indicate if the respective fixation was in the corresponding AOI (1) or not (0). NOTE: if the names of the AOI columns passed to the function are just numbers, make sure to pass these as character for the function to work properly. The function does not check for this case.

First pass fixations are further divided into forward and rereading fixations if rereading is set to TRUE. In this case the names of the columns containing the x and y coordinates of the fixation point should be supplied by fpx and fpy respectively. The unit of these coordinates does not matter as long as it is the same for both and for the value of fix_size.

It is important to set the minimal distance between fixations (or the visual acuity) via fix_size. This value is used to determine if two fixations are on the same line and/or on the same position in the line. When this value is to small it is possible that some first-pass fixations are falsely categorized as rereading fixations. Specifically fix_size determines what the minimal distance between fixations should be in order for fixations to be considered in a different position on the line or on a different line. The default value is specified in pixels(px). The value is the number of pixels equivalent to 2 visual degrees, taken a screen of 1020px and about 54cm in width and a viewing distance of 60cm. (see px2deg for conversions). The value of 2 visual degrees is the average visual angle of the fovea (Llewellyn-Thomas, 1968; Haber & Hershenson, 1973). It is recommended to play around with the fix_size value for every participant.

By default this function considers the first three (3) fixations in any AOI as first pass fixations. And it does this regardless of whether the fixations are consecutive or interrupted by fixations in a different AOI. The minimal number of fixations considered as first pass can be changed through fix_min.

Value

The function returns a character vector of the same length as the number of rows in data. Depending on the respective settings it contains the following values with their respective meanings.

• rereading is FALSE:

  • FP_\# First Pass

  • SP_\# Second Pass

• rereading is TRUE

  • FPF_\# First Pass Forward

  • FPR_\# First Pass Rereading

  • SP_\# Second Pass

Where \# stands for the name of the respecitve AOI.

References

Haber, R. N., & Hershenson, M. (1973) The psychology of visual perception. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

Llewellyn-Thomas, E. (1968) Movements of the eye. Scientific American, 219(2), 88-95.

Hyönä, J., Lorch, R. F., & Rinck, M. (2003). Eye movement measures to study global text processing. In J. Hyönä, R. Radach, & H. Deubel (Eds.), The mind's eye: cognitive and applied aspects of eye movement research (pp. 313-334). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.

Hyönä, J., & Lorch, R. F. (2004). Effects of topic headings on text processing: evidence from adult readers’ eye fixation patterns. Learning and Instruction, 14, 131-152. doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2004.01.001

Examples

  data( "SimData" )
  
  ### codePasses calculates first and second  passes
  ## if a single AOI column is provided
  # by name
  codePasses( data = SimData, AOI = "AOI" )
  
  # by column number
  codePasses( data = SimData, AOI = 5 )
  
  ## and if multiple AOI columns are provided
  # by name
  resultA <- codePasses( data = SimData, 
                         AOI = c( "AOI1", "AOI2", "AOI3" ) )
  resultA
  
  # by number
  codePasses( data = SimData, AOI = 2:4 )
  
  ## \code{fix_min} influences how many fixations are needed in an AOI  
  ## independent of any fixations in between.  
  resultB <- codePasses( data = SimData, 
                         AOI = c( "AOI1", "AOI2", "AOI3" ), fix_min = 1 )
                         
  data.frame( fix_min3 = resultA, fix_min1 = resultB )
  
  rm( resultA, resultB )
  
  ### it also calculates forward and backward first passes if the x and y
  ### coordinates of the fixations are provided and \code{rereading} is \code{TRUE}
  resultA <- codePasses( data = SimData, AOI = "AOI",
                         rereading = TRUE, fpx = "xcoord", fpy = "ycoord",
                         fix_size = 20 )
  resultA
  
  # and allows for different coordinate origins
  resultB <- codePasses( data = SimData, AOI = "AOI", rereading = TRUE,
                         fpx = "xcoord", fpy = "ycoord", origin = "bottomLeft",
                         fix_size = 20 )
   data.frame( topLeft = resultA, bottomLeft = resultB )
  
  ## mind that fix_size can influence the results
  resultB <- codePasses( data = SimData, AOI = "AOI",
                         rereading = TRUE, fpx = "xcoord", fpy = "ycoord",
                         fix_size = 10 )
  
  data.frame( fix_size20 = resultA, fix_size10 = resultB )