The Inhibition Theory Raymond et al. (1992)[12] suggested that the attentional blink is produced by perceptual uncertainty amongst the target (T1) and following target (T2). They suggest that this confusion happens at some point in the target identification processes. When confusion is eliminated, attentional blink isn’t observed. The researchers also suggested that one way to eliminate confusion is to have items that cannot be named.
The Interference Theory Shapiro et al. (1994)[13] suggested that an interference model may better explain the attentional blink effects than the inhibition model. In this model, the attentional blink is thought to take place because of an out of place item which is selected out of the series because of the interference within the items in the series. Shapiro proposes that the amount of interference increases or decreases with the length of the series.
The Delay of Processing Theory Giesbrecht and Di Lollo (1998)[14] suggests that the attentional blink deficit arises from the wait of target 2 when the person's cognitive processes are busy registering target 1. It is suggested that anything that increases the difficulty of processing the first target will result in a greater attentional blink deficit.
The Attentional Capacity Theory Duncan et al. (1996)[15] suggests that the initial target takes over parts of our attentional capacity to the loss of sight of a target right after the initial target. This theory suggests that the time for which target 1 continues to occupy attentional capacity is related directly to the difficulty of processing target 2.
The Two-Stage Processing Theory Chun & Potter (1995)[16] proposed that quickly processing a series of items requires two back to back stages. The first stage is the initial rapid-detection. Here, the possible targets are noticed. The second stage is the capacity-limited in which items are taken in order to report later. Stage 2 occurs after the acknowledgement of targets in Stage 1. Here, stage 2 must finishing processing target 1, until then, target 2 will not be recognized in stage 2. If there is a situation where the second target comes in the first stage, the highway to stage two is delayed. Attentional blinking occurs when the second target is in stage 1 which causes a delay. The attentional blink mirror a restriction in the process of combining information from an unstable representation to a stable representation (Johnson & Proctor, 2004).[17]