Abstract

Carlo Umiltà was a pioneer in the study of cognitive processes across multiple domains. Less widely recognized, however, is his substantial contribution to research methodology, driven by a sustained interest in advances in statistical techniques and their empirical applications. In this article, we honor his legacy by presenting a statistical framework that Umiltà helped introduce and promote in Italy: the analysis of response-time distributions within the field of mental chronometry. We describe three complementary approaches – (a) the overlap index, (b) quantile-based analyses, and (c) modeling through ex-Gaussian parameters. These methods are illustrated through a case study focusing on the self-prioritization effect, a cognitive phenomenon that holds an increasingly central position in contemporary psychological science.