Without wanting to cause too much thread drift or get too close to the eternal ‘moving thrust lever’ debate; Airbus pilots get used to including the N1/EPR gauges in their scan, and it becomes second nature to know exactly what the A/THR is doing, even though the levers remain static. Honestly, it is very easy.
My point about the Boeing (737 classic) is that is does not tell you that it is deliberately climbing or descending. You can see from the instrumentation that it is going up or down obviously, but there is no direct confirmation of the intention on the FMA; only an inference related to a change in engine thrust and speed reference.