An immediate memory, usually tested by reading someone a long string of numbers and asking them to repeat it back.
Most people can remember a string of about seven digits, e.g., a telephone number.
In such a test, all of a person's attention can be directed toward the task of hanging onto the numbers. A long-term memory, used to remember your name, the name of the President of the United States, your childhood, etc. This amnesia does not, however, extend to long-term memories. Even deep coma, which may silence much of the electrical activity of the brain, does not erase long-term memories. Long-term memories are not formed immediately after a new piece of information is acquired.