Groupitizing reflects conceptual developments in math cognition and inequities in math achievement from childhood through adolescence

Abstract

Understanding the cognitive processes central to mathematical development is crucial to understanding disparities in math achievement. We investigated the "Groupitizing" ability in 1,209 U.S. third to eighth graders from 2016 to 2018 (mean age at first timepoint = 10.48, 586 girls, 39.16% Asian, 28.88% Hispanic/Latino, 18.51% White), a process capturing the ability to use grouping cues to access the value of a set. Groupitizing improves from late childhood to early adolescence (d = 3.29), is a central predictor of math achievement (beta weight = .30), is linked to conceptual processes in mathematics (minimum d = 0.69), and explains the relation between socioeconomic status and mathematics achievement (minimum beta weight = .11) in ways that explicit symbolic measures may miss.