01596nas a2200205   4500000000100000008004100001260007600042653001500118653002400133653004300157653001200200100001600212700002100228245005800249300001200307490000600319520103700325022001401362020001401376       1999                            d  c07/1999bSociedad Española para el Estudio de la Ansiedad y el Estrés10aDepression10aselective attention10apositive and negative cognitive biases10aAnxiety1 aJesús Sanz1 aCarmelo Vázquez00aSelective attention and depression: A critical review  a191-2160 v53 aThis article reviews the research on selective attention to emotional information in depression comparing groups of individuals with and without (clinical or subclinical) depression on experimental cognitive tasks, as well as the research on its specificity in comparison with anxiety and its causal status. In contrast to claims made by Williams et al.’s (1988) model on cognition and emotional disorders, evidence suggests that depression is associated with the existence of attentional biases to negative information or with the absence of the positive attentional biases evident in normal persons, supporting in this way Beck’s (1987, 1991) cognitive theory. Although not conclusive enough, evidence also suggests that negative attentional biases in depression and anxiety differ from each other according to the content of the prioritized information, supporting Beck’s content-specificity hypothesis, and that negative attentional biases may be a causal factor in the maintenance or exacerbation of depressive disorders.  a1134-7937  a2174-0437