General discussion
depression, anxiety
MACLEOD
Cognitive processing (e.g., attention and interpretation) of emotional information have been postulated as crucial variables implicated in the onset and maintenance of diverse forms of psychopathology such as depression and anxiety (Mathews & MacLeod, Overall, the results of both studies show that the OCAT app is effective to modify attention and interpretation processes and that these changes seem to transfer to reductions of habitual use of brooding rumination and buffer against anxiety in the face of naturalistic stressors. The OCAT smartphone app was developed based on the same training principles of original ECAT and MCAT procedures (Sanchez et al., However, despite the promising results of these proof-of-principle studies, inconsistencies were found between Study 1 and Study 2, and future research should address them. For instance, whereas in Study 1 group-based transfer effects to brooding rumination and anxiety levels were found; in Study 2 these transfer effects emerged only from individual-based exploratory indirect effect models. As explained above, these differences could be accounted by the different nature of the stressors (the exam period in Study 1 vs. the COVID-19 lock-down in Study 2) as well as by differences in the sample characteristics (undergraduate students in Study 1 vs. community sample in Study 2). Additionally, there is still scarce evidence regarding the optimal number of sessions for these types of trainings. Future studies should address the effective-optimal dose of OCAT to maximize emotional improvements resulting from its use during periods conveying major stress conditions (see Vazquez et al., Other issues remain also unclear and should be analyzed in further pre-registered randomized control trials. For instance, the training provides attention-contingent feedback to train participants across each trial. This feedback is thought to enhance participants’ awareness of their attentional patterns, which would also facilitate the use of top-down cognitive strategies to regulate attention (Bernstein & Zvielli, Despite of these limitations, the OCAT app opens a new venue to implement an online training tool able of modifying attention and interpretation processes and transferring to promote adaptive emotion regulation and stress resilience. Of note, this app is suited to allow reaching large-scale clinically or at-risk populations. This is in line with claims regarding the necessity of theory-driven and empirically informed interventions able to intervene causal mechanism on psychopathology (NIMH, 