Quantitative Research Collaboratory

The Quantitative Research Collaboratory (QRClab) is a team of researchers working on projects which improve and expand quantitative methods and research practices in psychology (and related) research. Projects in the lab focus on implementation and analysis of repeated-measures design, open science practices, meta-science, and computational statistics (e.g., bootstrapping). New projects on new topics are always welcome!

The QRClab is seeking graduate students and undergraduates to contribute to the research in this lab. Students will begin on a collaborative project with direct contact with the Principal Investigator, and transition to greater independence as experience and desire dictate.

Lab Achievements

Congratulations to Jack Conner for being accepted to the UCLA Psychology Departmental Honors Program! Learn more about the program here.

Congratulations to Defne Tanyildiz, Hannah Steinberg, and Gareth Yu for presenting at PURC 2025 and the Undergraduate Research & Creativity Showcase 2025! Learn more about PURC here and the showcase here.

Gareth's video

Congratulations to Jared Block, Gareth Yu, Jack Conner, Jennifer Ding, and Defne Tanyildiz for presenting at WPA 2025! Learn more about the WPA here.

Congratulations to Jared Block for passing his C-Exam!

Congratulations to Tristan Tibbe, Jessica Fossum, and Yiwei Wang for presenting at WPA 2024!

Congratulations to PhD Candidate Tristan Tibbe for successfully proposing his dissertation!

Congratulations to PhD Candidate Jessica Fossum for successfully proposing her dissertation and her new position at Seattle Pacific University!

Congratulations to Amy Tang for presenting at PURC 2023!

Congratulations to Alondra Cruz, Amy Tang, Nickie Yang, Jessica Fossum, Jared Block, and Tristan Tibbe for presenting at WPA 2023!

Congratulations to Nickie Yang for being accepted into the PROPS program.

Congratulations to Valerie Polad! She is an incoming PhD candidate at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Congratulations to graduate student Tritan Tibbe for being awarded the NSF Grant! Learn more about the NSF grant here.

Congratulations Nickie Yang who is joining the UCLA B.I.G. program! Learm more about B.I.G. here.

Congratulations Valerie Polad! She presented her research at the Electronic Undergraduate Statistics Research Conference. Learn more about Reducing Carry Over Effects in Within-Subjects Designs here!

Research from the QRClab was recently featured on Quantitude: The Podcast Season 2 Episode 1 and Season 3 Episode 9. Honors student Kathleen Lamarque-Navarrete's research in collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Sumner, explores the use of propensity scores in recruitment of participants for cohort studies.

Research Highlights

Get Involved

Graduate Students: Please email me if you are interested in getting involved in the lab. I will be accepting applications for PhD students for Fall 2026. GREs are optional for admissions to the PhD program at UCLA. Quantitative psychology is by definition very reliant on quantitative skill sets which can be demonstrated in a number of ways: performance in mathematics courses, performance on the quantitative section of the GRE, and/or letters of recommendation speaking to your quantitative expertise. When reading applications we will look for demonstrated ability in quantitative skills, but this should not require a GRE score if other parts of your application speak to these skills. If you are unsure whether you should or should not include GRE scores in your application to UCLA, please feel free to contact me. Matrix algebra is an important part of statistics and quantitative psychology. Formal or informal education in this area is important for admission to our lab and program. If you have not been able to take a formal course in matrix algebra, see these resources for ways to gain informal education on the topic: Matrix Algebra Preparation.

See the Department Website for more information about the application process.

Undergraduate Students: Please email the lab if you are interested in getting involved in the lab. Include a resume/cv, your UCLA transcript, and fill out this application.

Graduate Students

Jared Block - 4th year PhD Student

Jared is a fourth-year graduate student at UCLA in the Department of Psychology — Quantitative Area, co-advised by Dr. Amanda K. Montoya and Dr. Steve Reise. He graduated with a B.S. in Psychology from UCLA in 2022. He is interested in measurement, item response theory models, and structural equation models.

Contact: jblock@psych.ucla.edu

Lillian King - 1st year PhD Student

Lillian is a first-year graduate student at UCLA in the Quantitative Psychology program, advised by Amanda Montoya. They graduated from University of Montana with a BA in psychology in 2023, and worked as a Intramural Research Training Awardee for 2 years at the National Institutes of Health after their bachelors. They are interested in missing data problems, the replication crisis, and alcohol use disorder.

Contact: lilliancking@ucla.edu

Bidkar Salazar - 1st year PhD Student

Bidkar is a first-year graduate student in the quantitative area of the psychology department at UCLA. He graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from CSUN in 2023. He is interested in measurement, mediation analysis, and metascience topics in the service of improving the quality of social science research.

Contact: bidkarjsalazar@g.ucla.edu

Alumni Graduate Students

Tristan Tibbe (PhD, Class of 2024) LinkedIn

Jessica Fossum (PhD, Class of 2023) Website

Alondra Cruz (Masters Degree, Class of 2023) LinkedIn

Lab Manager

Gareth Yu

Gareth is the QRClab Manager. He graduated with a B.S. in Cognitive Science and a B.A. in Linguistics & Psychology from UCLA in 2025. He is interested in time-series analysis, mediation and moderation analysis, structural equation modeling, and network science.

Contact: garethyu@ucla.edu