Abstract: Lag-1 sparing phenomenon reflects fundamental mechanism of continuous processes in temporary attention. Four critical accounts, including the sluggish-gate idea, two-stage competition model, temporary loss of control theory as well as boost and bounce theory are discussed with series of empirical research, compared with each other intensively and then appraised. The sluggish-gate idea emphasis on time factor while temporary loss of control theory lay upon lag factor on the production mechanism of Lag-1 sparing. The sluggish-gate idea and two-stage competition model are attributed to limited-capacity attention resource hypothesis, and the other two are tend to agree attention control accounts. These accounts, which based on fundamental temporal attention mechanisms, focus on the role of attention resource or attention control on the selective process of targets. Future research should focus on the combination with attention switch.

Key words: Lag-1 sparing, attentional gate, theory of attention control, attentional blink