One fact, moved through the context Buried in the middle Near an edge
The same fact is used more reliably when it sits near the beginning or the end of a model's context than when it is buried in the middle. The curve shows the shape of that effect, not measured values.

Nothing about the fact changes along this curve — only where it sits among everything else the model was given. That is what context engineering acts on: not the wording of the question, but which material is present and in what order. The sag is a documented effect, not a law; the curve shows its shape rather than measured values. After Liu et al., “Lost in the Middle” (2023).