Curricular analysis indicates that the U.S. students are introduced to multiplication in additive terms (as the replication of equal groups and repeated addition). But the virtue of this introduction for supporting students' understanding of the full range of multiplicative relationships is unclear. This paper reports an analysis of all grade 4 released NAEP items that expressed a multiplicative relationship, focusing on the range of relationship types, related quantities, and item difficulty. Results show that multiplicative items (1) frequently presented discrete quantities and equal group situations, (2) were easier when they involved discrete versus continuous quantities, and (3) within discrete items, equal groups and array items were easier than other types. These results provide measured support for the conjecture the additive introduction to multiplication may limit the development of elementary students' understandings. [For the complete proceedings, see ED606531.]