ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author presents his own 3-System theory of the cognitive brain. Based on extensive post-Piagetian psychological and brain imaging data acquired from children and adults, he has been proposing this theory for 20 years (from the seminal English paper of 1997). This 3-System theory includes the two previous cognitive systems of Piaget (logic) and Kahneman (heuristics). However, it also contains a third control system located in the prefrontal cortex and operating in connection with emotions and feelings, as in Damasio, and whose role is to inhibit System 1 and activate System 2 on a case-by-case basis, depending on the context. System 3 is the switching system of the cognitive brain. The innovative part of this approach lies in its attempt to come up with a brain-based synthesis of Piaget’s theory on logical algorithms and Kahneman’s theory on intuitive heuristics. It revives Plato’s and Montaigne’s ideas about the importance of education on will and control (System 3), renamed ‘executive control’ here. At the heart of this chapter, the author describes the experimental (reaction time) testing of this new theory, namely the negative priming procedure, and the inhibitory control training of the brain tested by imaging. He also presents examples from the classroom (such as maths problems) and discusses the implications of 3-System theory in education.
