Pattern recognition, inductive thinking, the skill of seriation, discovery, and cognitive architectures, are, more or less, synonyms. It made us good at hunting, gathering, language, music, science and much more. It helps us survive by making actionable (quick and efficient) sense of the world surrounding us. Today these concepts are being well-researched for AI applications.

I'm just a curious engineer, so out of my field here, but a quick search reveals names like Jean Piaget, Daniel Dennett and more, perhaps Daniel Bor http://www.danielbor.com/the-ravenous-brain/

On the various types of patterns> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_recognition_(psychology) so now we know why kids draw silhouettes :)

So it's also about information storage efficiency. Patterns significantly reduce the number of bits needed to store information. This leads you to Claude Shannon's information theory. Anyone who draws on a computer already knows this: the data difference between a vector-based and a pixel-based drawing is huge. (hence compression programs breakdown pixel images into pattern sets to save memory space.)

Enjoy!