The contribution of cognitive and affective experiences on empathy in children was assessed. It was expected that children receiving experience with both components would show more empathy than those receiving experience with only one or neither of these components. Six- to eight-year-olds participated in two phases, Training and Assessment. In Training, a child either received experience with (a) recalling situations they had experienced, (b) demonstrating emotions of story characters, (c) both components, or (d) neither component. In Assessment, children listened to stories and subsequently responded to three sets of drawings, which assessed (a) their understanding of each story situation, (b) their understanding of each character's emotional reactions, and (c) their own emotional reactions to the situations and characters' emotions. The results suggested that experience with either the cognitive or affective component deleteriously affected empathy in children; but having experience with both components maintained their previous levels of empathy. (Author)