Sensory Input. Although our various senses seem distinct, Hawkins argues that our brain processes them all as related spatial/temporal patterns. Spatial patterns occur when multiple receptors in a sensory system are simultaneously stimulated (the notes of a chord or the elements of a scene). Temporal patterns occur when such patterns change (chord sequences form a melody, movement occurs within the scene).

Initially fragmented sensory information becomes integrated as it moves hierarchically through our highly interconnected cortex—shapes, textures, and colors combine to form a face; sounds become melodic sequences that become a song—and the face is singing the song.

Our cortex can understand the world, because it and the world are both organized hierarchically. Everything in the world is composed of parts that predictably combine to create more complex forms—molecules into cells into organs into bodies, letters into words into sentences into stories.

Memory. Such integrated perceptual information is constantly compared to previous related memorized information, and recognition occurs at some point in the processing sequence. It's not necessary for our brain to have all the information before it recognizes something familiar. We can recognize a good friend from the back, from an introductory “Hi” on the phone, or even from a number displayed on caller ID.

Most memories involve sequential information, such as a song's melody and lyrics, or a recipe's directions. Our memory represents such complex sequences with a simple identifying name—America the Beautiful, angel food cake—that can activate the entire sequence. Language thus materially enhances cognitive processing.

More remarkable, our brain stores and recognizes information in invariant (or conceptual) forms. For example, although chairs occur in a wide variety of shapes, we can identify an object we've never seen before as a chair (and add it to our memory's chair repertoire). This comparison process sparks analogy and metaphoric thought. As our highly interconnected brain continually seeks matches between what it's currently experiencing and what it has experienced, it activates concepts that aren't a perfect match, but rather close enough to be useful. Such metaphoric matches form the base of much of literature and the arts, and of common discourse (“Your room looks like a pig sty!”).