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1
AP Psychology Summer Reading
Read Oliver Sacks’ The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. (It is available at the public
library, in multiple e-book formats, and I have asked the Barnes and Noble stores at Mall
of GA and Webb Gin to stock this.)
This is a collection of psychological & neurological case studies by Dr. Oliver Sacks;
each is very short and involves a different disorder, Dr. Sacks’ treatment and diagnosis,
and, sometimes, recovery. If you enjoy it, you might like to move on to a more in-depth
piece by Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars or Musicophilia.
I suggest going through the book at (roughly) one chapter/story per night, and each night
write one short sentence1 to answer the question(s) for that chapter/story. (A short
sentence means just that: do not write a paragraph for each study question!) Each night
before you start, read your study question answers from the night before. I’ll add updates
for each section to my website on the following dates:
When we return, you will turn in your study questions & we will take a multiple-choice
test on the book.
After answering the initial attached questions, as the summer goes on, check my website,
http://gcps-jobiejohnson.onmycalendar.com/ for study questions on Parts II-IV.
Completion of these is required.
Questions may be directed to mr.j.gsmst@gmail.com- Please include your name and
grade in the subject line!
The release dates for the rest of the questions are as follows:
o 6/1: Part I: Losses (I’ve also included a hard copy of these with this sheet.)
o 6/15: Part II: Excesses
o 7/1: Part III: Transports
o 7/15: Part IV: The World of the Simple
A couple of questions have asked for two sentences or require no sentence at all. Just follow the directions.
AP Psych: Summer Reading Questions (Part I)
Preface
1. Why are case studies relevant?
Losses- Introduction
2. How are sensation/perception tasks and cognitive tasks separated between right & left brain hemispheres?
3. What are aphasia and agnosia, and how are they different disorders?
4. Why must case studies incorporate the person’s history as well as the science/neurology of a patient’s
brain?
“The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat”
5. What sort of agnosia is prosopagnosia?
6. Even if you don’t understand their functions, what brain lobes did Sacks think were affected in Dr. P’s
agnosia?
7. What is the role of judgment in neuropathologies?
“The Lost Mariner”
8. Can you identify more than one kind of amnesia considered for Jimmie?
9. What is Korsakov’s Syndrome & what are some different forms/ degrees of it?
10. Why is it sometimes necessary to treat a patient by treating her/his living/environmental situation?
“The Disembodied Lady”
11. What is proprioception?
12. Explain how Christina’s polyneuritis was, at the time, a unique situation?
13. How did Christina eventually compensate for her polyneuritis?
14. (Optional) Was anyone else worried when they realized the amount of B 6 in energy drinks?? Why is that a
relevant question to this case?
“The Man who Fell out of Bed”
15. What is hemiplegia and how did it attribute to the postscript patient’s agnosia?
“Hands”
16. What are spasticity and atheosis?
17. How is diplegia different from hemiplegia?
18. How is “acquired agnosia” different from “developmental agnosia?”
“Phantoms”
19. (No answer required) I looked up neuromas/neurofibromas in this section; it seems more involved then
what we’ll get into in AP Psych, but those of you who have an interest in anatomy might like to explore it.
20. Why are phantom limbs necessary to continued physical functioning?
“On the Level”
21. What effect does Parkinson’s disease have on labyrinthine, proprioceptive, and visual senses?
22. What is Ménière’s disease and what might it lead to other than vertigo? Why does it lead to vertigo?
“Eyes Right!”
23. (Two-sentence answer) What is hemi-inattention and how is it related to the concept of neglect? How would right hemifield extinction manifest differently than left?
“The President’s Speech”
24. A glioma is a glial tumor. What is glia?
25. (Two-sentence answer) How do agnosia and aphasia compensate for loss of communication or recognition?
How about aprosodia?