In psychophysical (n = 55) and neurophysiological (n = 25) experiments subjects recognized the images from two categories--"animals" and "non-living objects" under forward masking. Subjects recognized images in two experimental conditions: the target and masking stimuli (SOA = 50 ms) belonged to same category and the stimuli belonged to different categories ("compatible" or "incompatible" pairs). It was found that an efficiency of forward masking depends on the categorical proximity the mask and the target stimuli. The probability of correct answers was lower, and reaction time and it's dispersion were higher in "compatible" situation as compared with the "incompatible" one. The worsening of behavioral response in "compatible" condition was associated with decreased amplitude of N2 and P3 components of ERPs. The observed effects appeared to be more marked in animal recognition in comparison with object recognition. The results are discussed in the context of negative priming and an influence of distractor.