fractionationn.

1878 C. T. Kingzett Animal Chem. 210 It may..be separated from that substance by a process of fractionation.

1926 Encycl. Brit. II. 164/1 The production of an innumerable series of colour-forms, as in the sweet pea, is almost certainly due to the fractionation of the colour-complex.

1934 H. C. Warren Dict. Psychol. 109/2 Fractionation, a piecemeal method of describing a conscious experience, in which the situation is repeated exactly..a number of times with varied instructions.

1951 G. Humphrey Thinking 68 The subject might be required to notice..what happened in consciousness before the stimulus word appeared. This was the method of fractionation.

1963 Language 39 11 ‘Position’ in a sentence is defined by successive fractionations, i.e. when a sentence has just two positions, each of which may be occupied by a word or a phrase, and when each constituent phrase in turn may be divided into two positions.

1966 Rep. Comm. Inq. (Univ. of Oxf.) I. 135 The growth and present size of most departments now means that these duties are far beyond the grasp of a single head, and fractionation has become essential to well-being and progress.