Flynn, Laland, Kendal and Kendal's article (this issue) plays a valuable role in two ways. First, it demonstrates how developmental psychology can learn lessons from the latest research on developmental niche construction within evolutionary biology. Secondly, for those psychologists whose main focus is the cognitive mechanisms by which humans develop their particular suite of abilities, it is a useful reminder of the vast contribution of culture to shaping the modern human mind. Indeed, it is interesting to speculate on how much of the explanation of the abilities of modern humans should be properly apportioned to mechanisms of cognitive development compared to the extended accumulation of years of accumulation of cultural knowledge, practices, and artefacts that provide the social and educational niches within which humans are raised. In this commentary, however, the author focuses on the evolution, and addresses how much of the evolutionary dimension of niche construction theory (NCT) should be imported into developmental psychology.