Definition of perseverate in English:
perseverate
verb pəˈsɛvəreɪtpərˈsevəˌrāt
[no object]Psychology Repeat or prolong an action, thought, or utterance after the stimulus that prompted it has ceased.
they perseverate under stress
Example sentencesExamples
- I have a mild frontal lobe disorder that leads me to perseverate, and thus I've continued to work out the theory and do experiments anyway.
- Bitterman and Couvillon found that bees tended to perseverate - to choose the color for which they had most recently been rewarded.
- So he was compensating for the uncertainty factor by perseverating on the stressor with which he was at least already familiar - that stressor being work.
Derivatives
noun
Psychology Problems in response inhibition and response perseveration are well documented in studies of children with ADHD.
Example sentencesExamples
- With that change, they found that bees no longer demonstrated a preference for perseveration.
- The second type of error was a perseveration error.
- Such self-regulatory perseveration is characterized by unproductive rumination about the failure.
- It has been used as a test of perseveration and to assess the ability to sort cards according to class membership.
Origin
Early 20th century: from Latin perseverat- 'strictly abided by', from the verb perseverare (see persevere).