Captivity Spren

[Nellac]

So, I'm reading through the books again and little things keep catching my attention. One is that in WoR while Kaladin is in jail he sees little Spren that look like wires. In an interlude that I think is in twok we see Axis the collection looking for Spren. At the end when he is sent to jail he says something about having another chance to see captivity Spren. I believe this is what Kaladin saw in his cell. Now, the interesting part is why Kaladin saw it when Axis never did. This may be because he is a radiant, buti think there's more to it. I think it is because Kaladin felt trapped. He felt like he was caged and therefore his emotions drew the Spren to him. Now Axis seems to be so carefree I doubt he truly felt captive in prisons. More than likely he just sees it as a slight delay in his quest to see all Spren. This mindset is not enough to draw the Spren.

[Honorless he/him]

There's probably two reasons for it

A ) As you pointed out, Kaladin was in a very strong imprisoned, trapped kind of mindset while Axies wasn't, he was just "here we go again", Kaladin's mindset was more conductive towards attracting captivityspren 

B ) some spren are more prevalent in certain areas, as Axies notes with alespren, the spren need to be in the area in order for them to be attracted by the emotion

[Eternal Khol he/him]

I think I might've seen a WoB that they're also just a more rare type of spren. 

And with what @Honorless said in Option B. They just might not in the area

[Gilphon]

I mean, I feel like Axies is pretty well-traveled, and has explored many of the world's jails; I don't think it's a matter of the region. But I do think that Axies rarely if ever thinks of himself as trapped anywhere