Recent theories of depression that have attracted enthusiasm are those of Lewinsohn and Seligman. Lewinsohn's theory emphasizes the importance of deficits in social skill leading to reduced reinforcement, while Seligman's emphasizes the evolution of the depressive's belief that his responding and reinforcement are independent. The present study collected data relevant to both of these theories. Depressed, psychiatric control, and normal control subjects were exposed initially to a tripartite classical conditioning procedure designed to elicit aversive, pleasant, and neutral responses. Videotapes made of subjects' facial expressions during this initial session were shown to subjects from all three groups during a second session. During this second session subjects were required to guess which of the three different types of conditioning trial the subject they were observing was undergoing. Additionally, subjects were required to predict how well they would perform on three separate trials. Consistent with Lewinsohn's theory, results indicated that depressives were the most difficult of all subjects to observe. However, contrary to Seligmen's theory, depressed subjects showed very close correlations between performance feedback and changes in their predictions regarding future performance, and were no different than other subjects. (Author)