The answer would be the second option. The best reason for doing more background research after making an observation and before forming a hypothesis is to prevent making the same mistakes made in a prior experiment. It is to make sure that you are able to see the problems of a research and make an experimental design that will minimize the errors.
One hears epic accounts of people surviving bullets to the brain, 10-story freefalls or months stranded at sea. But put a human anywhere in the known universe except for the thin shell of space that extends a couple of miles above or below sea level on Earth, and we perish within minutes. As strong and resilient as the human body seems in some situations, considered in the context of the cosmos as a whole, it's unnervingly fragile
Independent variable represent the variable
If we were to differentiate anthroprocentric and biocentric views of the environment you could say that anthroprocentric is more holistic than biocentric. They consider the importance of the environment to human beings. Biocentric sees humans as an individual part of the environment.
Also Biocentric views tend to focus more on biotic factors (living things) and anthroprocentric veer towards the abiotic factors (non-living things).