The construct underlying simple paper-and-pencil logical operations tasks administered to young children in group settings was examined. The logical operations, number concepts, and visual discrimination subtests of the Early School Assessment (ESA) were administered as part of the Fall 1987 national tryout of the ESA. The mathematics concepts and applications subtest of the California Achievement Test (Form E) was administered as an anchor. The two subtests of ESA Level 1 was administered to 766 and 1,456 beginning kindergarten students and the three subtests of ESA Level 2 was administered to groups of 1,553, 1,728, and 888 first graders. It was hypothesized that the logical operations items in the ESA could be aligned with either visual discrimination tasks or with mathematics. An item analysis was conducted. All three ESA subtests were highly correlated with the mathematics test. The analysis revealed that these paper-and-pencil logical operations items were more closely related to number concepts than to visual discrimination, but they were distinct. These paper-and-pencil operations were not highly correlated with more traditional tasks involving manipulatives, suggesting that different constructs were being measured. The mode of response is a critical issue in the assessment of logical operations in young children; this issue raises questions of construct validity. Six tables present study data. (SLD)