Abstract: Three experiments focused on the relationship between the exposure duration(ED) and the Attentional Blink(AB). It was found in the first experiment that the magnitude of AB trailed off as the ED become longer. The SOA had similar effect on the AB as the ED had and the interactive effect between SOA and ED is significant either. The second experiment replicated the result pattern of the experiment one and indicate that the ED effect found in forenamed experiments is not caused by speed-up response to the Target. The experimental dissociation of the ED effect——weakening AB effect as ED prolonged disappeared——was found in the third experiment and is proved to caused by the enhanced distracters as their ED prolonged when targets and distracters share similar preattentive features. Moreover, it was evident that visual salience can accelerate the speed of processing information by guiding the attentive process to the target and finally result in weakened AB effect. The Central Interference Theory should be modified to accommodate the result of experiments.

Key words: Attentional Blink, experimental dissociation, Central Interference Theory, RSVP paradigm