Negative priming for spatial locations: identity mismatching, not distractor inhibition.

Negative priming (NP) is commonly thought to occur because distractor inhibition is necessary for target selection (the distractor inhibition hypothesis). Contrary to this account, the selection of a target in the preceding trial is shown to be neither necessary (Experiment 1) nor sufficient (Experiments 2 and 3) for NP in a target localization task modeled after S.P. Tipper, J.C. Brehaut, and J. Driver (1990). Experiments 4 and 5 provide further evidence against the distractor inhibition hypothesis and support an alternative mismatching account: NP in the spatial selection task apparently results from a change in the symbol bound to a given location (D. Kahneman, A. M. Treisman, & B. J. Gibbs, 1992), rather than a change in the status of that location from distractor to target (S. P. Tipper, J. C. Brehaut, & J. Driver, 1990).