Psychology bachelor’s thesis on neurocognitive aspects of pool billiards – participants wanted

chrislill-rastern said:
Hi everyone,

I hope this is okay to post here.

My name is Christian Lill-Rastern. I am a billiards instructor from Austria and currently writing my bachelor’s thesis in psychology at the University of Innsbruck.

For my thesis, I am investigating neurocognitive aspects of pool billiards performance. More specifically, the study looks at abilities such as spatial reasoning, mental rotation, movement anticipation, and intuitive physics, and how these may relate to performance in pool.

The online test takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes and is open to players of all levels — from recreational players to league, tournament, and elite players.

Please try to complete the test as fully as possible. Short breaks are possible, but very long interruptions may cause the session to expire or the test to be interrupted.

Study link:
https://j3.ideenweberei.com/billardtest-en (english version)
https://j3.ideenweberei.com/billardtest (german version)

This is a non-commercial academic project. I would be very grateful for every participant and also for any feedback from experienced players, instructors, and coaches.

If you know other pool players who might be interested, sharing the link would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much for supporting scientific research in pool billiards!

Christian Lill-Rastern
Billiards instructor from Austria
Psychology student, University of Innsbruck
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Christian, wondering what your able to pass to your students with your results.
 
Island Drive said:
Christian, wondering what your able to pass to your students with your results.
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Well one of my Hypothesis is, that high scores in the test predicts talent and depending were you scored less it predicts certain weekness which should be compensated, as they can only be trained to a certain degree. On the other Hand I expect that training with (for example) mental rotation tasks should have a helo effect to your game play at the Pool Table. I think in Billiard we generally focus to much on technical aspects of the game and too much training is on the table. A modern Athlet gets better when he/she starts to think "out of the box" and learns to train his game with all it's complexity and integrates off table training or holistic methods.
 
Rocket354 said:
I'm not sure asking specifically pool players would answer that question very well in a general sense. People who are spatially challenged, be it men or women, are much less likely to be pool players, much less pool enthusiasts who will be answering these questions. Never mind the additional self-selection bias of people willing to sit through 20mins of standardized test questions about it.
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It may answer two questions: 1. Which traits are important and 2. Do this traits explain differences in the skill levels between men and women, as we see differences even though Pool players are generally scoring much higher then average. For the training of women or male that score less on certain mental rotation tests, that can mean: We need to adapt our training methods based on the results (for instance going around the table and visioning possible outcomes might overcome weekness in mirroring).
 
Bob Jewett said:
So in Austria players are required to have training in the rules? Almost no American players have ever had such training, and even some top players make very basic rules mistakes.
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You need to be assistant referee - yes. This for a very simple reason: Most tournaments or League Games do not have a Referee, so the players are their own Referees. In short: Who ever plays in the League or takes part in a tournament in Austria, is Assistant Referee.
 
Sure! In Austria, the coaching pathway is structured from Übungsleiter to Instruktor and finally to state-certified Trainer. These steps are embedded in the official sport education system and are accompanied by formal training and examination structures, especially through the Bundessportakademie Österreich (BSPA). In pool billiards, an Übungsleiter supports basic club training and beginner development. An Instruktor is qualified to plan and conduct structured training sessions independently, focusing on technique, tactics, positional play and player development. A state-certified Trainer works in performance-oriented sport with advanced players, squad athletes and elite competitors. This pathway ensures that coaching in pool billiards is based on recognised standards, not only on informal experience.
 
chrislill-rastern said:
It may answer two questions: 1. Which traits are important and 2. Do this traits explain differences in the skill levels between men and women, as we see differences even though Pool players are generally scoring much higher then average. For the training of women or male that score less on certain mental rotation tests, that can mean: We need to adapt our training methods based on the results (for instance going around the table and visioning possible outcomes might overcome weekness in mirroring).
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I enjoyed the survey and imo, you did an excellent job covering the many areas you intend to include in your thesis. I hope you get enough responses to get a good baseline from which to gleen further info.
You have covered the spatial and cognitive aspects as well as I believe they can be.
I wish you the best of luck and my compliments to you on this endeavor.
Quite an undertaking.
Please post final results.
 
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Mensabum said:
The way I was taught to play any game was to be a gentleman about it. I don't need the win that badly.
It's just a shame they have to put something like this in the rules for people to follow.
Make a mistake, admit it, learn from it, move on.
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Agree! But unfortunately not all play by the rules and not all even know them ;) . Beside of that there are other differences between US and Europe: We - for instance, only play on 9 foot tables and have no Tournaments on Bar Tables and generally we have no Bar Tables in Clubs anymore.
 
Chopdoc said:
This is for his thesis. Honestly, he needs to fix that.
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Keep in mind pls: Some questions are related to european regulations and rituals. In order for me beeing able to categories skill levels of players, I need this basic information. In US most of you know your FARGO, we do not use FARGO for instance. That makes it just that more harder to judge the capabilities of the players tested. So never mind, if you stumble uppon this questions. It is just not possible to run two versions of the same test (or more) based on country specifics.
 
Mensabum said:
I enjoyed the survey and imo, you did an excellent job covering the many areas you intend to include in your thesis. I hope you get enough responses to get a good baseline from which to gleen further info.
You have covered the spatial and cognitive aspects as well as I believe they can be.
I wish you the best of luck and my compliments to you on this endeavor.
Quite an undertaking.
Please post final results.
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Thank you very much and be assured: I will post the results, as soon as possible! Please share the Test! 😉
 
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chrislill-rastern said:
It may answer two questions: 1. Which traits are important and 2. Do this traits explain differences in the skill levels between men and women, as we see differences even though Pool players are generally scoring much higher then average. For the training of women or male that score less on certain mental rotation tests, that can mean: We need to adapt our training methods based on the results (for instance going around the table and visioning possible outcomes might overcome weekness in mirroring).
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Number 1 does not answer the question about a difference between men and women, and your explanation for number 2 evolved into something that doesn't, either.

I'm not attacking anyone here, I'm just thinking the current questions and sampling method won't answer anything regarding men vs women in general or even amongst pool players, even though they are attempts to answer useful questions in their own right.
 
Rocket354 said:
Number 1 does not answer the question about a difference between men and women, and your explanation for number 2 evolved into something that doesn't, either.

I'm not attacking anyone here, I'm just thinking the current questions and sampling method won't answer anything regarding men vs women in general or even amongst pool players, even though they are attempts to answer useful questions in their own right.
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If mental rotation doesn't play a role in Pool: Yes then the test would not be able to explain certain skills of Pool Players, which would be a result anyway.
 
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