I am sorry I can bear this no longer !
The word you are looking for is Psychological - Psychology and Physics intersect in Psychophysics of which Psychoacoustics is a sub-branch and concerned with how sound is perceived related to the actual stiumlae presented, but you are really talking about expectations and cognitive biases altering our perceptions of sound when nothing has really changed , this is really more properly a matter of straight Psychology.
It is a small point I know but I
wasted spent 4 years of my life getting a brace of degrees in Psychology and sometimes the right word is important
Aanl-retentive rant over !
Oh and I agree with you by and large, although one could also argue that going in skeptical might prime you to not hear changes that are there ?
What we really need is some method of blinding us to whether or not a stimulus has changed , what could that be ?