The negative compatibility effect (hereinafter referred to as NCE) manifests itself in a slowed response to a target stimulus that is preceded by a masked prime matching the target or implying the same response. This effect occurs at specific stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) between the prime and target (100–200 ms) in tasks requiring rapid responses to simple stimuli, such as right- or left-pointing arrows. Factors promoting the NCE include high response readiness, strong stimulus-response associations, and prolonged training. The dominant theoretical account attributes this effect to automatic motor inhibition. In the present study, the NCE was reproduced both in a task requiring the same motor response for all stimuli and under conditions that disrupted automatic stimulus-response associations—specifically, when the requirement to respond in each trial (trial type: Go/NoGo) was determined by a combination of two parameters. In the first experiment, upon the appearance of a target arrow, participants had to press a key as quickly as possible, regardless of the arrow's direction. Subsequently, a word was presented that could either match or mismatch the arrow's direction, and participants were required to indicate this correspondence. In the second experiment, black left- and right-pointing arrows served as masked primes, while orange and blue arrows were used as target stimuli. Participants had to respond either to right-pointing orange arrows and left-pointing blue arrows, or to the opposite pairing. In both experiments, reaction times were longer when the prime and target arrow directions matched. The obtained results support non-motor models of the NCE.