Fig 2. The cued task-switching paradigm (reproduced from [20]).

Children switched between sorting the target (blue bear) by shape or by color. The patches of color within the black circle provided a cue that color is the relevant sorting dimension. In the Proactive-Impossible condition, the cue appeared at the same time as the target, making proactive preparation impossible (uninformative brown dots appeared in place of an informative cue, which were later replaced by the cue). In the Proactive-Possible condition, the task cue was presented prior to the target and remained visible when the target appeared, making proactive preparation possible but not critical. In the Proactive-Encouraged condition, the cue was presented prior to the target but disappeared before the target’s appearance, encouraging children to attend to and process the cue proactively.