[R-sig-eco] AIC / BIC in lmer and glmer

[Philip Dixon]

My apologies to the list.  My e-mail this morning about interpreting AIC 
in lmer() was off-target.  I did not notice that Chris's call to lmer() 
included family = binomial, which means the actual estimation is done by 
glmer().  glmer() ignores the REML= argument.  glmer() only does 
approximate ML.  In a generalized linear model, AIC is reasonable to 
compare models with different fixed effects.  My caution is appropriate 
only for models with gaussian errors.

I get the daily burst from the list.  If others have already pointed out 
the difference between glmer() and lmer(), thank you!

Philip Dixon