I'll take "Tarts" for three dollars, please, Alex.

per·sev·er·a·tion  (pr-sv-rshn) n. 1. Psychology a. Uncontrollable repetition of a particular response, such as a word, phrase, or gesture, despite the absence or cessation of a stimulus, usually caused by brain injury or other organic disorder. b. The tendency to continue or repeat an act or activity after the cessation of the original stimulus. 2. The act or an instance of persevering; perseverance. Perseveration is a common occurrance after a stroke, and I often see it in speech therapy sessions. Today I was working with a 90-something-year-old retired physician who has expressive language difficulties after a stroke.  I was having him formulate sentences with a given word.  He was tending to perseverate despite my cues to try to vary his responses.  Some of his sentences were: using hummingbird:  "The hummingbird ate the cake." using camera:  "The camera photographs the bird." using basketball: "The basketball photographed the cake." At that point I stopped him and pointed out that he was using some of the same words and the last sentence didn't make sense. So we went along and sentences seemed to be better, until the following: Me:  "Make a sentence using dollar."   Dr. S: "It's only a three-dollar doll."  Me:  "How 'bout using tart."  Dr. S: "She's a three-dollar tart." Luckily, he has macular degeneration so he couldn't see the shuddering as I tried to stifle my giggles. I love my job!