You can extract the posterior variance of the random effect from the bVar slot of the fitted lmer model. It is not a hidden option, but a part of the fitted model. It just doesn't show up when you use summary().

Look at the structure of your object to see what is available using str().

However, your comment below seems to imply that it is incorrect for lmer to report SDs instead of the standard error, which is not true. That is a quantity of direct interest.

Other multilevel programs report the same exact statistics (for the most part). For instance, HLM reports the variances as well. If you want the posterior variance of an HLM model you need to extract it.


-----Original Message-----
From:	r-help-bounces@stat.math.ethz.ch on behalf of Shige Song
Sent:	Wed 8/17/2005 6:30 AM
To:	r-help@stat.math.ethz.ch
Cc:	
Subject:	[R] How to assess significance of random effect in lme4

Dear All,

With kind help from several friends on the list, I am getting close.
Now here are something interesting I just realized: for random
effects, lmer reports standard deviation instead of standard error! Is
there a hidden option that tells lmer to report standard error of
random effects, like most other multilevel or mixed modeling software,
so that we can say something like "randome effect for xxx is
significant, while randome effect for xxx is not significant"? Thanks!

Best,
Shige

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