https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618769893 Psychological Science 1–10 © The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0956797618769893 www.psychologicalscience.org/PS Research Article It is widely claimed that a good working memory is a cognitive prerequisite for competent arithmetic devel- opment (Raghubar, Barnes, & Hecht, 2010), especially good visuospatial working memory (VSWM; Ashkenazi, Rosenberg-Lee, Metcalfe, Swigart, & Menon, 2013). Research shows that young children’s arithmetic com- petence is associated with their VSWM and older chil- dren’s with verbal working memory. For example, visuospatial interference disrupted 6-year-olds’ arith- metic more that verbal interference, whereas the reverse was true of 8-year-olds (Holmes & Adams, 2006). These findings are consistent with the claim that nonverbal, spatial representations support early arithmetic (Lauer & Lourenco, 2016; Tosto et al., 2014). Measures of intel- ligence have also been associated with arithmetic ability (De Smedt et al., 2009). They often tap spatial capacities (Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices) as well as verbal capacities (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) and are thought to reflect executive functions (Alloway & Passolunghi, 2011) that may be important in manipu- lating the contents of working memory (Cragg & Gilmore, 2014; Iuculano, Moro, & Butterworth, 2011). While these associations have been challenged, it is worth asking if they are the result of intrinsic cognitive capacities independent of cultural factors. Here, we asked whether the contribution of VSWM and nonverbal intelligence to arithmetic ability depends on cultural factors or if they are general cognitive pre- requisites independent of culture. To do this, we stud- ied arithmetic abilities in two very different communities. The first comprises mainstream English-speaking 5- to 6-year-olds in urban Australian schools. The second are Anindilyakwa-speaking 5- to 6-year-olds from an island off the coast of Arnhem Land, northern Australia (see Fig. 1). The latter children have little experience of counting because their language contains no count 769893PSS XX X 10.1177/0956797618769893Reeve et al.Culture-Independent Prerequisites for Early Arithmetic research-article 2018 Corresponding Author: Robert A. Reeve, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Redmond Barry Building, Grattan St., VIC 3010, Australia E-mail: r.reeve@unimelb.edu.au Culture-Independent Prerequisites for Early Arithmetic Robert A. Reeve 1 , Fiona Reynolds 1 , Jacob Paul 1 , and Brian L. Butterworth 1,2 1 Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, and 2 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London Abstract In numerate societies, early arithmetic development is associated with visuospatial working memory, executive functions, nonverbal intelligence, and magnitude-comparison abilities. To what extent do these associations arise from cultural practices or general cognitive prerequisites? Here, we administered tests of these cognitive abilities (Corsi Blocks, Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices, Porteus Maze) to indigenous children in remote northern Australia, whose culture contains few counting words or counting practices, and to nonindigenous children from an Australian city. The indigenous children completed a standard nonverbal addition task; the nonindigenous children completed a comparable single-digit addition task. The correlation matrices among variables in the indigenous and nonindigenous children showed similar patterns of relationships, and parallel regression analyses showed that visuospatial working memory was the main predictor of addition performance in both groups. Our findings support the hypothesis that the same cognitive capacities promote competence for learners in both numerate and nonnumerate societies. Keywords visuospatial ability, numerical cognition, indigenous children who lack number words, predictors of arithmetic ability Received 12/2/16; Revision accepted 3/9/18