When adding a new item to a list can you prevent it from copying over from the previous item in the list?

There is a copyOnAdd option that controls that behavior. If you are talking about changing the behavior for a model or symbol, you can find the option as a checkbox in the UI (see attached image).

If you are talking about changing that behavior for a custom react component, you can add the field copyOnAdd: false when registering your component, e.g.

inputs: [ { name: 'myList', type: 'list', copyOnAdd: false, ... }]