[R] zero random effect sizes with binomial lmer

[Gregor Gorjanc]

Daniel Ezra Johnson <johnson4 <at> babel.ling.upenn.edu> writes:
...
> If one compares the random effect estimates, in fact, one sees that  
> they are in the correct proportion, with the expected signs. They are  
> just approximately eight orders of magnitude too small. Is this a bug?
...

BLUPs are essentially shrinkage estimates, where shrinkage is determined with
magnitude of variance. Lower variance more shrinkage towards the mean - zero 
in this case. So this is not a bug.

Gregor