Does negative priming reflect inhibitory mechanisms? A review and integration of conflicting views

Negative priming has traditionally been viewed as a reflection of an inhibi tory mechanism of attention. However, recent accounts have suggested that n egative priming does not reflect inhibitory mechanisms. Rather, slowed reac tion times on negative priming trials are either due to retrieval of incomp atible response tags or of mismatching perceptual information, or due to ex tra processes needed to distinguish past from present information. In contr ast, it is proposed that there is no firm evidence to discount inhibition m odels. In fact, although retrieval processes can be implicated in negative priming effects, understanding of these requires consideration of the inhib itory processes involved in selecting information for goal-directed behavio ur.