The following hypotheses were tested in two consecutive experiments: first, that individual differences in the amount of cognitive resources possible to allocate to an activity or process correspond to individual differences in negative priming effect, and second, that negative priming is sensitive to cognitive load. The results suggest that the amount of negative priming effect results from the allocation of cognitive resources and that individual differences in cognitive capacity is related to the ability to efficiently handle irrelevant information. Additionally, the results support the assumptions that cognitive load decreases the negative priming effect.