COGNITION AND EMOTION 2008, 22 (7), 1340 1352 Identiﬁcation of angry faces in the attentional blink Frances A. Maratos, Karin Mogg, and Brendan P. Bradley University of Southampton, Southampton, UK According to cognitive and neural theories of emotion, attentional processing of innate threat stimuli, such as angry facial expressions, is prioritised over neutral stimuli. To test this hypothesis, the present study used a modified version of the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm to investigate the effect of emotional face stimuli on the attentional blink (AB). The target stimuli were schematic faces which depicted threatening (angry), positive or neutral facial expressions. Results showed that performance accuracy was enhanced (i.e., the AB was reduced) on trials in which the second target was an angry face, rather than a neutral face. Results extend previous research by demonstrating that angry faces reduce the AB, and that this effect is found for schematic facial expressions. These findings further support the proposal that, when there is competition for attentional resources, threat stimuli are given higher priority in processing compared with non- threatening stimuli. INTRODUCTION Cognitive and neural models of fear and threat processing propose that there are specialised mechanisms that are responsible for the enhanced processing of threat-related information (e.g., Davis & Whalen, 2001; LeDoux, 1996; Mogg & Bradley, 1998; O¨ hman, 1996; Pessoa, 2005). Such models suggest that attentional resources are preferentially allocated to threat-related cues, relative to other types of information (e.g., non-emotional stimuli), and that this selective processing should be particularly apparent for biologically prepared threat stimuli, which have evolutionary significance, such as angry faces, snakes and spiders (LeDoux, 1996; O¨hman, 1996). The ability to process such information efficiently poses several survival advantages. For Correspondence should be addressed to: Frances A. Maratos, Centre for Psychological Research in Human Behaviour, Department of Psychology, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby, DE22 1GB, UK. E-mail: F.Maratos@derby.ac.uk This research was funded by the Wellcome Trust (reference 051076). We thank Sophia Durrani for her help with pilot work on a related project and helpful comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript. Francis Maratos is now at the Centre for Psychological Research in Human Behaviour, University of Derby, UK. # 2008 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business www.psypress.com/cogemotion DOI: 10.1080/02699930701774218