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Verbal fluency (VF) tasks are extensively used to measure strategic retrieval and executive functioning. Results for total production of words, clustering and switching strategies, and performance over time for Spanish-speaking children are provided. A total of 120 children, ranging in age from 8 to 11, were divided by age into two groups and evaluated. A higher total score for words produced in the semantic compared with the phonological task, a correlation between clustering and switching strategies and total score, and decreased task performance over time were evidenced. These scores were higher in the older group. Moreover, an association was found between verbal fluency tasks, strategies employed, and cognitive executive functions. This indicates that clustering and switching strategies provide indicators of strategic retrieval and executive processes. Together the results suggest that these fluency scores are valuable to measure underlying cognitive processes and retrieval strategies and therefore could be useful to assess executive function deficits in children.

Desde la primera utilización del término empatía en Psicología, a principios del siglo XX, su uso se ha extendido por las distintas ramas de esta ciencia, lo que ha dado lugar a la proliferación de teorías y categorías concebidas para explicar su funcionamiento o describir sus componentes. En el presente artículo se revisan algunas discusiones sobre los alcances y los límites del concepto de empatía y se intenta aclarar las particularidades y las relaciones entre términos que conviven en la investigación sobre el tema: contagio emocional, empatía emocional, toma de perspectiva, teoría de la mente y mentalización. Se propone además una integración de este campo conceptual en un esquema amplio, al buscar dar cuenta de la complejidad del constructo de Empatía.

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