Error in calling glmer from mixed()

[tkerwin]

Following the example in the binomial GLMM vignette:

e1_mixed1_v2 <- mixed(
   acc ~ congruency*condition + (congruency*condition|pno), 
   data = stroop_e1_agg, 
   method = "PB", 
   family = binomial,
   weight = n
)

I get the error:

Error in `glmer()`:
! unused argument (REML = FALSE)
  1. └─afex::mixed(...)
  2.   ├─base::do.call(...) at afex/R/mixed.R:1011:11
  3.   ├─pbkrtest (local) `<fn>`(largeModel = `<glmerMod>`, smallModel = `<glmerMod>`)
  4.   └─pbkrtest:::PBmodcomp.merMod(largeModel = `<glmerMod>`, smallModel = `<glmerMod>`)
  5.     ├─pbkrtest::PBrefdist(...)
  6.     └─pbkrtest:::PBrefdist.merMod(...)
  7.       └─pbkrtest:::do_sampling(largeModel, smallModel, nsim, cl, details)
  8.         ├─base::unlist(...)
  9.         └─parallel::mclapply(...)
 10.           └─base::lapply(X, FUN, ...)
 11.             └─pbkrtest (local) FUN(X[[i]], ...)
 12.               └─pbkrtest (local) get_fun(largeModel, smallModel, nsim = nsim.cl)
 13.                 ├─base::unname(...)
 14.                 ├─base::unlist(...)
 15.                 └─base::lapply(...)
 16.                   └─pbkrtest (local) FUN(X[[i]], ...)
 17.                     ├─base::suppressMessages(refit_safe(sm, yyy, ctrl))
 18.                     │ └─base::withCallingHandlers(...)
 19.                     └─pbkrtest (local) refit_safe(sm, yyy, ctrl)

I saw the same error in my own usage of mixed with a Poisson family glmm, which led me to investigate further.

[singmann]

This is a problem with the current version of pbkrtest and I cannot fix it within afex. I have reached out to the pbkrtest maintainer a while back but haven't heard back when he is going to fix it. At the moment, the only thing you can do is downgrade pbkrtest to the previous version, which is still available on CRAN, see here: https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/pbkrtest/

Alternatively, you can use method = "LRT" for the time being.

The following shows that the error happens without involvement of afex, using functionality that is used internally by afex as well:

library("lme4")
#> Loading required package: Matrix
require("mlmRev") # for the data, see ?Contraception
#> Loading required package: mlmRev
mfull <- glmer(use ~ urban + (1 | district), family = binomial, data = Contraception)
mred <- glmer(use ~ 1 + (1 | district), family = binomial, data = Contraception)
test1 <- pbkrtest::PBmodcomp(largeModel = mfull, smallModel = mred, nsim = 200)
#> Error in glmer(formula = use ~ (1 | district), data = dd, family = binomial, : unused argument (REML = FALSE)

^{Created on 2025-08-26 with reprex v2.1.1}

I will leave this issue open until pbkrtest is fixed.