Tablet based arithmetic fluency assessment reveals developments in math cognition and math achievement from childhood to adolescence

Fluency in mental arithmetic is regarded as a foundational math skill typically measured as a single construct with pencil and paper-based assessments. Here we introduce a novel tablet-based paradigm that allows for the rapid assessment of single-digit fluency while also capturing trial to trial information. We administered our tablet-based assessment of single digit arithmetic across a large (n=914), diverse cohort of 3rd- 7th grade students (ages 7-13 years). The tablet-based paradigm enabled us to analyze performance across individual items, allowing us to capture established effects, such as operation and operand distance. We also distinguished problems that are common in arithmetic tests from those that are generally excluded from such assessments. Fluency with problems commonly included in arithmetic assessments also proved to be a stronger predictor of achievement on state-mandated standardized tests than traditional aggregate raw scores. This fluency across problem sets also partially mediated the relationship between parental income and mathematics achievement. Finally, we explore how speed-accuracy tradeoffs differ across these two problem types and find that they become more similar as a function of both age and overall math achievement. We propose that assessing single-digit arithmetic with this novel tablet-based paradigm reliably replicates known effects from laboratory based studies in an efficient 3-minute session. This form of assessment is vital for large-scale datasets looking to explore the development of mathematical cognition.