1 Acknowledgements

My thesis work was made possible because of three amazing mentors: Lucy D’Agostino McGowan, S. Mason Garrison, and Kenneth T. Kishida.

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my primary advisor, Dr. Lucy D’Agostino McGowan. She helped foster my interest in programming, especially in R, through her Statistical Learning course which introduced me to more advanced statistics and R programming concepts. Working as her TA, and having the opportunity to interact with her, has greatly influenced my thinking and post-college plans.

It has been a pleasure and a privilege to collaborate with Dr. Garrison on {discord}. I will always be grateful to her for introducing me to quantitative psychology and experimental design and for the ongoing support she provides for my academic and programming endeavors.

I have been fortunate enough to conduct research with Dr. Kishida since my freshman year. He encouraged me to follow my interests and gave me the space to combine my loves for R, programming, and neuroscience. I am excited to pursue a Master’s of Science in his lab starting fall 2021.