does my cat have a learning disability?

i've had 6 month old Sammy for almost a month. rescued him from a shelter and he is spayed. but i'm at my wits end! he's a holy terror and an angel all in one... i have tried all the tricks in the book to try training methods. spraybottle, using treats as rewards for doing right, using stern, mean voice and making noise to make him get down from where i don't want him to be.... but after all this time, i swear it doesn't do any good! many times he'll get down if i clap and tell him no. but when he's feeling stubborn he will meow at me (like i'm wrong for telling HIM what to do) and won't budge. and i end up throwing him off. and like i said, i have tried treats and everything. what is his problem!? other than that, he's pretty much a good kitty. i've blown up a couple times and feel awful, so i want to make it up to him and help him with his problem. and how do i stop this talking back problem? he does it when i don't want him to bite me hard when playing. aaaarggghhhh .... please help!

Sammy is probably totally confused. Please try to control your temper, as what you are doing now will prevent him from bonding with you at all and then good luck trying to help explain to him good behaviors v bad behaviors at all. Cats do not speak English and what seems perfectly rational to us makes no sense to them. Like, I don't let Z up on the kitchen counters, but to her it makes no sense because obviously thats where the food is right? She doesn't understand that we don't want her hair in our food, because, well she cleans herself with her tongue. While I am not a cat neurologist, I doubt Sammy has a learning problem.
The only way to train a cat is too be consistent (Sammy probably has no idea what you do when she does something "bad" because you have done so many different things!) to be very patient, and gentle gentle gentle. All I do to Zissou is say No calmly and firmly, or say if she bites my hand or something while sitting in my lap, I just pick her up and put her gently down on the floor. That way, she just realizes that a condition of cuddling with me is that she doesn't bite. Almost every time she gets back up on my lap, purrs that she's sorry, and lies back down without biting me.

He is also being a kitten. Some kittens are just completely hyper and crazy and full of energy all the time. He will probably grow out of most of it.

And please do not use the spray bottle.

Cats meow. That's normal. Save the yelling for when he does something completely unacceptable like biting or scratching you. If one of my cats bites, I usually push in instead of pulling away, or stop playing with them. Also if they start kicking my arm or something I will hiss at them. I would try some other training methods. Cats cannot be trained like dogs.