It is Friedman and Felleisen's belief "that writing programs recursively in Scheme is essentially simple pattern recognition". (The Little Schemer, Fourth Edition)
I think this sits well with what we know about cognition. Skill acquisition can be treated as a continuum with analytical reasoning lies at one end, and pattern recognition at the other. The more we practice a skill, the less any kind of reasoning is taking place, replaced by heuristics that the brain is excellent at (of which pattern recognition is but one example).
See also Daniel Kahnemann's System 1 and System 2 Thinking.
