Immediate memory is a very short-term form of verbal memory. We do not consciously use this kind of memory, but it is central to conscious thought. This type of memory allows your brain to combine things you have just heard into rational sentences or statements. If you did not have immediate memory, you would only hear sounds as they happen. Devoid of the pattern they are a part of, sounds are meaningless.
Another aspect of verbal learning is short-term memory. Short-term memory is that part of memory in which you memorize something that you need for just a few moments. There is a limit to how much verbal information can be stored in short-term memory, although this limit can be stretched a bit by fooling the brain. You can normally remember about seven numbers in sequence long enough to use them, such as when you need to dial a phone number. However, by grouping the numbers in a process known as clunking, you can remember more numbers more easily. For example, you can remember the numbers 437628463 more easily if you read them as four thirty-seven, six twenty-eight, and four sixty-three.
When we need to learn a bit of verbal information for more than a moment, we rely on long-term memory. This often involves one of two processes. We will either repeat the number or phrase so many times that it becomes (almost) permanently stored in our memory, or we learn to associate the number or phrase with some mnemonic device. For example, your bank pin number might be best remembered by choosing a year you remember from history, such as 1492 or 1860. Or you might remember that De Soto traveled down the Mississippi by imaging an old DeSoto automobile floating down the Mississippi.
One way that we can learn and retain verbal information is to use a process in which we associate the number or phrase with something personal that we already remember. For example, if you are given a list over the phone of ingredients you have to pick up at the grocery store, you might find it easier to remember the dishes you like that require these ingredients.