perseveration/perseverate

Reader's Digest 8月号の記事 Don't regret に出てきた単語です。
The fourth component here is that regret is what psychologists call perseveration. To perseverate means to focus obsessively and repeatedly on the same thing. Now the effect of perseveration is to basically take these first three components of regret and put them on an infinite loop.
"perseveration" は心理学用語で、意味は文中で説明がありますが一応辞書を見ます。
・Vocabulary.com:
1) the act of persisting or persevering; continuing or repeating behavior: His perseveration continued to the point where it was no longer appropriate.
2) the tendency for a memory or idea to persist or recur without any apparent stimulus for it
・Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health:
the inappropriate persistence or repetition of a thought or action after the causative stimulus has ceased or in response to different stimuli; for example, a patient answers a question correctly but incorrectly gives the same answer to succeeding questions. Perseveration is most often associated with brain lesions but is also seen in schizophrenia.
日本語で馬鹿の一つ覚えと言うのがありますが、これも一種の "perseveration" でしょうね。