The purpose of this study was to investigate the function of positive attentional cues as cognitive factors in the modification of fear responses in a desensitization-like treatment procedure. Positive attentional cues are defined as positively-valenced descriptors of the feared stimulus. Two groups of two subjects each were assessed as to the intensity of their fear responses (snake phobia) along behavioral and cognitive dimensions. After two relaxation sessions, the standard treatment and experimental groups received the same desensitization treatment with one exception: the hierarchy of the experimental group was supplemented with a positive attentional cue. The results indicated that while both groups improved on the behavioral measures, the experimental group's improvement was somewhat greater. Follow-up data indicated that the experimental group lost some of their initial gains while the control group continued to improve. The implications of these findings are discussed. (Author)