Self-checkout registers have become ubiquitous in grocery stores as they provide convenience and efficiency for customers. They also offer more privacy with no human directly monitoring your purchases. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looks at whether shoppers prefer self-checkout when buying potentially stigmatized items, including condoms, pregnancy tests, period products, hemorrhoid cream, and diarrhea relief.

Some autistic teens often adopt behaviors to mask their diagnosis in social settings helping them be perceived — or “pass” — as non-autistic. For the first time, researchers from Drexel University's A.J. Drexel Autism Institute are able to observe brain functions that differ in those who “pass as non-autistic,” which could lead to a better understanding of the cognitive toll of this kind of masking, and of how these individuals could be more effectively supported.

People view physicians more negatively who disclose the use of artificial intelligence in their practice. This is the conclusion of a new study by psychologists from University of Würzburg.

Recent research shows that your brain doesn’t pay attention in one smooth stream—instead, it switches focus in quick bursts, about 8 times per second. This process, called “attentional sampling,” helps your brain deal with too much information by jumping back and forth between different things you're seeing. It’s kind of like your brain is taking rapid snapshots instead of watching a constant video. And when you need to focus on more than one thing, the rhythm splits to allow focusing on each one around 4 times per second. This helps explain how we make sense of a busy world, even when we don’t notice it happening. According to the researchers, this rhythmic alternation between the objects or features that capture our attention helps resolve the competition for neural processing that emerges among them. Our attention is always moving—even when we think we’re locked in.