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Throughout our lives, as children or adults, each event we encounter is a mixture of positive and negative aspects. Depending on our perspective, various characteristics of objects or situations become salient. The tendency to attend, use and learn more from negative features of stimuli (i.e., negativity bias) can constitute a risk factor for emotional disorders, especially mood and anxiety. The evolutionary perspective is that weighting negative information more heavily than the positive has served as an adaptive mechanism throughout evolution. Nowadays, giving far more importance to negative features of stimuli than to positive, manifesting a high sensitivity to threat and using biased interpretations of the world can seriously alter optimal functioning of individuals. Given the existing theoretical framework for understanding the mechanisms through which cognitive biases influence vulnerability to emotional disorders and the empirical data regarding their assessment and modification,we highlight the need to investigate such cognitive mechanisms in regard to emotionally relevant novel stimuli that parallel an ecological environment. We conclude our paper by discussing the practical implications and future directions that such research may provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims to provide an overview of current research investigating the impact of childhood anxiety upon working memory paralleling the mounting evidence documenting this relationship in the adult literature. We review mostly behavioral evidence, but we also consider neurobiological data and theories where available. From a processing efficiency perspective developed by M. W. Eysenk and M. G. Calvo (1992), the documented detrimental effect of childhood anxiety on cognitive performance, in general, and academic performance, in particular, is thought to be mediated by the impact of anxiety-biased processes upon working memory processes, at both the level of storage and manipulation of information. This effect is proven to be present even in emotionally neutral tasks, therefore not only in those that manipulate the emotional arousal and valence of the stimuli. Still, even if we keep the focus on available research at the behavioral level, the data regarding the extent of the working memory transitory impairment in anxious children, as well as its exact target, that is the verbal, visual-spatial or executive component of working memory, remain controversial. We attempt an in-depth task-analysis indicating that outputs of current studies are not directly comparable. We propose further lines of investigation, considering specific developmental aspects; finally, some emergent implications for educational and clinical practice are delineated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]