Some research on attribution processes has suggested that attributional search is exploratory behavior that serves adaptation and mastery motives. This study was conducted to investigate attributional search in reactions to success and failure after quitting smoking, to look for antecedents of attributional search other than expectancy and outcome, and to identify subjects' concerns about future outcomes. Sixty-one persons were telephoned 1.5 to 2 years after they had completed smoking cessation treatment and were asked to list the questions they asked themselves about the fact that they had quit smoking or continued to smoke. Number of attribution questions served as an index of attributional search and number of prediction questions was a marker for concern about the future. As predicted, smokers who had relapsed after a period of abstinence asked the most attribution questions and ex-smokers who slipped but returned to abstinence asked the most prediction questions. These results are consistent with previous demonstrations that attributional search is stimulated by unexpected and negative events and that concern about the future follows unexpected success. Regression analyses showed that a more extensive attributional search was associated with smoking outcome, occurrence of a slip, and lighter smoking habit before treatment, and that higher concern about the future was connected with shorter duration of habitual smoking. (Author/NB)