Response inhibition is a hallmark of cognitive control. An executive system inhibits responses by activating a stop goal when a stop signal is presented. The authors asked whether the stop goal could be primed by task-irrelevant information in stop-signal and go/no-go paradigms. In Experiment 1, the task-irrelevant primes "GO," ###, or "STOP" were presented in the go stimulus. Go performance was slower for "STOP" than for ### or "GO." This suggests that the stop goal was primed by task-irrelevant information. In Experiment 2, "STOP" primed the stop goal only in conditions in which the goal was relevant to the task context. In Experiment 3, "GO," ###, or "STOP" were presented as stop signals. Stop performance was slower for "GO" than for ### or "STOP." These findings suggest that task goals can be primed and that response inhibition and executive control can be influenced by automatic processing. (Contains 3 tables, 5 figures, and 2 footnotes.)