Reactions to the position of a new target stimulus are slower when it appears at a former distractor-occupied, rather than a new, location (i.e., spatial negative priming [SNP] effect). The SNP effect represents maladaptive processing. Accordingly, its observed prevention pursuant to certain motivational factors is helpful, although the disengagement mechanism is undefined. Here, we tested the possibility that SNP prevention is achieved by blocking a response-based retrieval route that normally accesses stored response inhibition information that causes SNP. We incorporated many: 1 location-response mappings into a traditional SNP design, which allowed the use of an earlier (inhibited) distractor response but not its location (distractor-response repeat
[DRR] trial). Uncued, latency for the DRR trials exceeded those of control trials, signifying the presence of a response-based retrieval route. When the DRR was validly cued, this latency difference was eliminated, indicating that this route had been blocked as a means of disengagement
