In high school, Deanna took three years of Spanish. Upon enrolling in college ten years later, she registered for a remedial French course. When required to speak in French during class discussion with her teacher and classmates, Deanna frequently responds with Spanish words instead of French words. This is one example of

In high school, Deanna took three years of Spanish. Upon enrolling in college ten years later, she registered for a remedial French course. When required to speak in French during class discussion with her teacher and classmates, Deanna frequently responds with Spanish words instead of French words. This is one example of proactive inhibition

Proactive interference.

Explanation:

In high school, Deanna took three years of Spanish. Upon enrolling in college ten years later, she registered for a remedial French course. When required to speak in French during class discussion with her teacher and classmates, Deanna frequently responds with Spanish words instead of French words. This is one example of proactive interference. Proactive interference is the interference or confusion of older memories with new ones. It is common for this to happen when the contexts are similar. In this case, Deanna gets confused when learning a new language with the learning of a previous one. The context is similar so her mind gets confused. As Deanna starts getting more familiar with French she will stop getting the two languages mixed up, and will eventually stop having proactive interference as the new memories will be more significant or stronger than the older ones.