[R-sig-ME] mixed model with non-continuous numeric response

[Daniel Ezra Johnson]

Dear all,

I have survey results where the response is 1, 2, 3, or 4. These can
be thought of as equally-spaced points on a scale, I don't have a
problem with that. (They're actually more like "not at all", "some",
"mostly", "totally"; the subject is judging a stimulus.)

I want to model crossed random effects for Subject and Item. Am I way
off base in modeling this data with a lmer(family="gaussian") model? I
know it's not perfect, but is it really bad? If so, what could I do
instead? (The error certainly wouldn't be binomial, right?)

Thanks,
Daniel