An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis (derived from Piaget's theory of cognitive development) that the structure of children's drawings and play-constructions, being expressions of the same underlying function, should be similar. Two groups of 4- and 6-year-old nursery school children were given a testing task consisting of an orally presented narrative describing an outdoor scene. Following this presentation, children were required to retell the story and, in separate sessions, to produce a drawing, build with toys they had to request, and build with toys selected from a group of alternative choices. Results were in general agreement with the hypothesis, indicating that the degree of spatial coherence was similar in drawing and in play-constructions. Furthermore, it was found that while the 6-year-old children constructed spatially coherent representations, the 4-year-olds did not. (Author/MP)