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Cognitive load theory holds that working memory can juggle about four interacting elements at once. Prior knowledge chunks several elements into one, reducing the load: nine elements with three already chunked leaves six effective elements, a load ratio of 1.5 - overloaded, and a signal to segment the material.
Effective elements
effective = interacting elements - already chunked elements
Load ratio
ratio = effective elements / working memory capacity
Because experts hold schemas in long-term memory that chunk many elements into one, freeing working memory for reasoning.
Cowan's review puts it near four for interacting items, well below Miller's classic seven, which applied to non-interacting digits.