serial reproduction
a method for studying memory in which one person reads a set of information before reproducing it for another person, who then reproduces it for a third person, who does the same for a fourth, and so on. Serial reproduction is widely regarded as a model for the social communication of retained information, and as such it is an important experimental tool in the analysis of rumor and gossip transmission, stereotype formation, and similar phenomena. The processes at work in changes that occur in serial reproductions by different individuals—that is, leveling (simplification), sharpening (emphasis on selected details), and assimilation—have been of great theoretical importance both in social psychology and in theories of personality. See also chain reproduction; repeated reproduction. [developed in 1932 by Frederic C. Bartlett]