I originally sent this to Doug Bates but have received no reply yet so I thought I would expand to a wider source. I've been trying to estimate linear mixed effect models in lmer() from the lme4 package using the weights option. The help and code for lmer() suggest to me that this is implemented but I can't seem to get it to do anything with weights = , no error message reported it just seems to ignore the weights option as my weighted and unweigted models are identical in all summary statistics. Below is an example of my model code. The weights are lengths of observational bouts on wild horse behavior. So is weights not really yet implemented or am I missing something? m2.wt<- lmer(HD_RATE ~ NUM_PAIR + (NUM_PAIR|HMA),data=out2.5,weights=HOURS/max(HOURS), contrasts=list(NUM_PAIR="contr.treatment"),family=gaussian) Brian Brian S. Cade, PhD U. S. Geological Survey Fort Collins Science Center 2150 Centre Ave., Bldg. C Fort Collins, CO 80526-8818 email: brian_cade@usgs.gov tel: 970 226-9326 [[alternative HTML version deleted]]