Abstract: This review summarized the studies on the bottleneck theories of attentional blink. It mainly contains three parts. The first, four theories as two-stages model, central-interference theory, temporary loss of control (TLC) model and the delayed engagement of attention hypothesis, indicated that the bottleneck in higher central processing produced the attentional blink; the second, input-filter and target-template hypothesis illustrated that there is a control bottleneck in target selection of attentional blink; the third, simultaneous type, serial token model (ST2 model). Finally, the limitations in bottleneck theories of attentional blink embodied in the two areas, the bottleneck theories couldn’t explain all the phenomena in attentional blink and the theories themselves were imperfect

Key words: attentional blink, bottleneck theories, target selection, attentional set