Thanks for the helping links. Now, I worked out that I have to use the lme4
package (with the lmer function) for my analysis. But now I do not
understand the input to the lmer function.

In the lme function (of the nlme package) the correct input would in my case
be:

lme(fixed=Ac_LC~cond_ind,random=~img_cond|sub_ind/cond_ind)

but also after reading the help and the R news I do not understand the
formula I have to use for the lmer function. Could someone help me
translating the lme input to a lmer input? And does someone know of a good
explanation of the kinds of formulas you can input? In the books they only
explain the lme input.

Thanks,
Lina

2006/10/17, Stefan Grosse <singularitaet@gmx.net>:
>
> Please always reply to the list as well as there always might be someone
> faster/better answering (or it could be that I am wrong, so someone
> might correct me)
>
> Indeed Pinheiro/Bates assume gaussian error terms... but I am not really
> sure whether you meant that with  "non normally distributed respond
> variable" resp. "with non-normal data"
>
> however:
> "/ Mixed-effects models: / The recommended nlme
> <http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Descriptions/nlme.html> package,
> associated with Pinheiro and Bates, / Mixed-Effects Models in S and
> S-PLUS / (Springer, 2000), fits linear and nonlinear mixed-effects
> models, commonly used in the social sciences for hierarchical and
> longitudinal data. Generalized linear mixed-effects models may be fit by
> the glmmPQL function in the MASS package, and by the lmer function in
> the Matrix
> <http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Descriptions/Matrix.html> package
> (related to the lme4
> <http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Descriptions/lme4.html> package,
> which largely supersedes nlme
> <http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Descriptions/nlme.html> for /
> linear / mixed models). Also see the lmeSplines
> <http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Descriptions/lmeSplines.html> and
> lmm <http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Descriptions/lmm.html>
> packages." [
> http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Views/SocialSciences.html ]
>
> Lina Jansen schrieb:
> >
> >
> > 2006/10/17, Stefan Grosse <singularitaet@gmx.net
> > <mailto:singularitaet@gmx.net>>:
> >
> >     Interesting packages for you might be the nlme and lme4 packages
> >     and as
> >     a book Pinheiro/Bates, "Mixed-Effects Models in S and S-Plus"
> >
> >
> > Thank you for the answer. I am always unsure concerning the
> > non-normality. Can I use the nlme and lme4 with non-normal data?
> > First, I thought they would work like an ANOVA but with random and
> > fixed effects.
>
>

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