If Jeff Hawkins is right about the common cortical algorithm [1], then it should follow that even our high-level thinking and problem solving uses the same pattern detection mechanisms. On the lowest levels of the hierarchy (those receiving the raw data from the sensors like eyes) pattern detection finds common causes of the input data, ie. certain types of correlation (spatial and temporal), and passes these up the hierarchy. It should be the case, then, that higher-level thinking works the same way. Their inputs are higher-level constructs like objects and maybe associations between objects and so on. What the brain does with these inputs should be essentially the same as it is in the lower levels.
[1] Common cortical algorithm is a hypothesis that the brain uses the same learning algorithm in all modalities (visual, auditory, etc).