"A bigger leap came in an experiment about numbers, in which the parrot was shown groups of two, three and six objects. The objects within each set were colored identically, and Alex was asked, “What color three?”…. “Five,” he replied perversely (he was having a bad attitude day), repeating the answer until the experimenter finally asked, “O.K., Alex, tell me, ‘What color five?’ ”….“None,” the parrot said….Bingo. There was no group of five on the tray. It was another of those high huneker moments. Alex had learned the word “none” years before in a different context. Now he seemed to be using it more abstractly."
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Deric Bownds’ MindBlog: Did Alex really “want” a cracker?
What impresses me most about most animal shows is when the trainer points to one in a group and instructs it to do something, that ability to understand itself as an individual as well as a member of a larger group.
