Sensory memory

One of the type of memory as defined in Atkison-Shiffrin Memory Model.

Example sensory memory is how we can enjoy movies, and why we can see the lines from sparklers.

References

Goldstein, Cognitive Psychology (p. 129).

Is the retention, for brief periods of time, of the effects of sensory stimulation.

The lighted trail is a creation of your mind, which retains a perception of the sparkler's light for a fraction of a second. This retention of the perception of light in your mind is called the persistence of vision.

A person viewing the film doesn't see the dark intervals between the images because the persistence of vision fills in the darkness by retaining the image of the previous frame.