"making associations" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to describe when two or more things are thought of in relation to one another. For example, "Making associations between different concepts can help deepen one's understanding of a subject."
I think the way that I decode people's food likes is more to do with making associations with what they eat.
Bianca Spender Since founding her eponymous label in 2009, Spender has struggled with people constantly making associations with her famous designer mother, Carla Zampatti.
Another limitation arises from the failure to test participants' hearing over time, as happened with cognitive tests, making associations more difficult to tease out.
A false belief coordination problem would thus avoid alternative interpretations having to do with identifying the actor's goal, or making associations from similar situations in the past.
Nets may be good at making associations and matching patterns, but they have fundamental limitations in mastering general rules such as the formation of the regular past tense.
While his delusions are extreme, our brains are making associations like this all the time.
We recognize patterns and make associations.
"People can watch the Frost/Nixon interviews and make associations that aren't just about Richard Nixon and David Frost.
Free men in a nation of individual rights may make associations with other individuals by mutual agreement.
According to him, our brains automatically make associations based on our experiences and the information we receive, whether we consciously agree with those associations or not.
You make associations, find memories evoked, gain a greater or lesser sense of the physical efforts and skill that went into making a structure.
