A preregistered study designed to examine if people experiencing chronic pain have impaired control of attention to pain-relevant information in the environment. This study started on the 1 September 2016. It was accepted for publication in *Clinical Psychological Science* on 25 March 2020. **Abstract**: Cognitive deficits in chronic pain are often attributed to difficulties in attentional control. According to the deficit view, these difficulties stem from a reduction in attentional capacity driven by attentional focus on pain experience; alternatively, according to the motivated attention view, attentional biases toward pain-relevant threats in the environment reduce attention available for everyday tasks and goals. We tested both accounts using a task in which 72 people with, and 72 without, chronic pain performed a simple perceptual task, while attempting to ignore pain-relevant images of body mutilations or neutral scenes. They also completed a common test of attentional control. Although people with chronic pain reported subjective difficulty with attentional control, and were slower on both tasks, groups did not differ on behavioural measures of attentional control. Findings suggest that attentional control may not be an optimal target for interventions intended to improve cognitive function in chronic pain.