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Tracking memory for a positive collective event: A longitudinal study of the 2024 solar eclipse

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom
Also presenting in Data Blitz Session 1 - Saturday, March 7, 2026, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm PST, Salon ABC.

Signy Sheldon¹ (), Lauren Nordstrom¹, Azara Lalla¹, Jade Gordon¹, Daniela Palombo²; ¹McGill University, ²University of British Columbia

Collective memories, personal recollections of shared public events, have traditionally been examined in the context of negative, unexpected occurrences (e.g., the 9/11 attacks). Such studies show that memories of these negative events remain vivid and confidently recalled over time, despite declines in accuracy. This pattern has been attributed to social sharing of the memories to form collective narratives. Whether positive, public, and meaningful events follow a similar pattern remains unknown. To address this question, we examined how individuals remembered the rare, positive, and socially shared 2024 solar eclipse over time. In a longitudinal online study, 175 Canadian university students recalled their experience of the solar eclipse and a personal event from the same week across four sessions (1 week, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months post-event). At each session, participants provided free recalls to assess thematic (gist) content, answered specific detail questions (“who/where/what”) to assess accuracy, and rated each memory for confidence, emotional valence, arousal, rehearsal, and meaning. Results revealed that solar eclipse memories retained their thematic structure but were recalled with reduced accuracy over time compared to the personal memories. Despite this decline in accuracy, participants reported consistently higher confidence in their eclipse memories and rated them as more positive and arousing than the personal memories. These findings suggest that positive, anticipated public events can evolve into collective memories in a similar manner to negative public events.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Other