Momentary lapse of control: A cognitive continuum approach to understanding and mitigating perseveration in human error

•Occupational stressors can promote perseveration in operational situations.•Parallels are drawn between human operators under stress and clinical population exhibiting perseveration.•We suggest a cognitive continuum to explain momentary lapses of executive and attentional control.•Transient or permanent impairment of DLPFC is detrimental to exhibiting adaptive behavior.•We use this framework to suggest ways to mitigate operators’ perseveration.