Section 3.

You will hear a conversation between two students and a psychology professor
about a research project. First, you have some time to read through questions 21 to 24.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 24.

- Professor: So, what have you come up with for your research project topic?

- Raymond: Well, Tracy and I have been thinking about focusing on the benefits of art
therapy for different age groups.

- Professor: I see. Why did you choose that topic in particular?

- Tracy: Raymond and I thought it would offer an interesting perspective. Art therapy helps
people of various ages in different ways. It might be good to explain that to our class.

- Raymond: We've also discovered a large number of studies about art therapy sessions
conducted with particular age groups. The topic would be easy to research as there are a lot
of sources out there.

- Professor: OK, that seems reasonable. So, what have you found out about the effects of art
therapy on different age groups?

- Tracy: There is an interesting study about art therapy in preschool children. Creating art
not only encourages them to be creative, but an extra benefit is that it helps to develop their
hand-eye coordination and other motor skills.

- Raymond: Yes, and it also helps improve their attention span and cognitive ability.

- Professor: OK, that sounds interesting. What about the effects on other age groups?

- Tracy: With adolescents, there is one study that reveals art therapy improves their ability
to talk to people. Therapists working with teenagers suffering from depression found that
they were able to communicate the issues they faced through their art, which helped them
express these feelings verbally.

- Raymond: And there is lots of other research too, which shows the benefits of art therapy
for adults.

- Professor: What sorts of benefits did you discover specifically?

- Tracy: We read a study on adults coping with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
These people had all dealt with a serious trauma, and art therapy was a significant part of
their healing process.

- Raymond: We also researched studies showing that art therapy improves the memory
functions of senior citizens. If I remember correctly, doing artwork requires the use of both
sides of the brain, which improves both short- and long-term memory. Art therapy works
really well for those losing their memories due to Alzheimer's or dementia.
Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you can read through questions 25 to 30. Now
listen and answer questions 25 to 30. That's all excellent. It sounds like you're off to a
good start.

- Professor: That’s all excellent. It sounds like you’re off to a good start. How are you
collecting your data?

- Tracy: Mostly online journals and websites. However, I have scheduled some interviews
with a few psychologists to find out from them what they consider to be the greatest
benefits of art therapy for their patients.

- Professor: Excellent. It's important to get the perspective of art therapy practitioners, and
you'll get lots of practical information conducting the interviews as well. I think you will have
a wide range of materials available for your project. Now, do you have any concerns so far?

- Raymond: It seems like there will be a lot of material to cover if we include data about
each age group. I'm not sure we'll be able to fit everything in considering the time we have
left.

- Professor: That is quite true. Hmm, in that case, there are some ways to narrow down your
research. For example, you may wish to compare the benefits of art therapy for preschool
children to those experienced by senior citizens, because the therapies provided to both age
groups are fairly similar.

- Tracy: You mean in terms of the activities they do?

- Professor: Yes. Often, preschoolers and seniors are given sketchbooks and asked to draw
how they feel that day. The younger patients take to drawing very quickly, but the older
ones can be reluctant and often struggle to come up with ideas. They are more likely to
produce abstract expressions of how they feel, whereas preschoolers will often draw things
they see around them.

- Tracy: Oh yes. I also found that both age brackets participated in a lot of group therapy
sessions, and the benefits were similar for patients from both groups. The sessions included
interacting socially with peers, which in both cases stimulated better thought processing.

- Professor: That's an excellent point to include. And another method that is being used
more frequently with both these age groups is art therapy sessions that incorporate music.
Several studies have been done on that, and the results are very interesting.

- Raymond: Oh, I've heard about that. There are several ways music is used. One involves
patients drawing or painting how the melody makes them feel, and it can be a very effective
means of getting rid of tension. Yes, we should definitely look into that technique, Tracy.

- Tracy: Well, then let's look into the existing research on art therapy using music and start
compiling some data.
- Professor: Great. It sounds like you're headed in the right direction, so we should try to
schedule our next…

That is the end of section 3. You now have half a minute to check your answers. Now turn
to section 4.