But the Airbus thrust levers are not back driven, so simply having your hand on the lever doesn't tell you much. On Boeing, if you have your hand on the lever and it's all the way back at idle and not moving - while your speed is getting dangerously low - a competent pilot should make the connection (at least if he'd been trained to)...
Reportedly, due to the way the Boeing back drives the yoke on the 777, as Asiana was approaching stall the pilot was having to pull back on the yoke with something approaching 100 lbs. force. Not many people could have done that with one hand on the thrust levers...