Eye fixation

Fixation or visual fixation is the maintaining of the visual gaze on a location. Humans (and other animals with a fovea) typically alternate saccades and visual fixations, the notable exception being in smooth pursuit, controlled by a different set of ocularmotor muscles that appear to have developed for hunting prey.

Reading involves fixating on a successive locations across the page or screen. Visual fixation is never perfectly steady: fixational eye movements occur involuntarily. The term "fixation" can also be used to refer to the point in time and space of focus rather than to the act of fixating; a fixation in this sense is the point between any two saccades, during which the eyes are relatively stationary and virtually all visual input occurs (e.g., Martin 1974).