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Gabriele Buccola is remembered as the first Italian psychologist to have developed a rigorous program of laboratory research. The careful examination of the instruments and experimental planning of his psychochronometric investigations reveals the indissoluble bond between theory and experimentation that defines a scientific conception of psychology on the basis of a differential methodology. For Buccola it is important to demonstrate that there exist "laws" that govern the mental processes, and that there exists a time that regulates human reactions and behaviour, considering however the individual differences and various factors that can bear influence to increase or decrease it. The use of 'intelligent' instruments proves to be fundamental within a model of experimentation directed towards pointing out individual differences and not just identifying the general laws of mental functioning. Buccola in this way imparts a psychological characterization to the study of mental illness--placing him as an initiator of experimental psychopathology, which will have a significant development in Europe thanks precisely to the work of Kraepelin--along with a differential and clinical-experimental bent to the emerging Italian scientific psychology. Lastly, the attention directed to the study of complex mental processes leads Buccola to lay the foundation in Italy for the study of the subjective experience of time.