I’m glad you got it figured out! 
“Association” is a feature of the Z wave standard, it’s just that not all manufacturers implement it on all devices.
If the devices do support Association, you can set them up with the Z wave tweaker, with some device-specific device type handlers, or with some physical devices (such as a minimote)…
I’ve never heard of an association being set accidentally during inclusion, but I suppose anything is possible. Did you by any chance use a Minimote during the process? That’s the most common way of accidentally setting associations.
You can See whether or not a device is capable of using association by looking at its official entry on the Z wave alliance website:
http://products.z-wavealliance.org
And you can see whether associations have in fact been set for a device by using the Z wave Tweaker: