Association analysis implemented with fantastic association measures is a basis of big data mining, so finding a reasonable measure is a key step for assocization analysis. Firstly, the challenge and research status of association measures are pointed out in the era of big data. From the perspective of the structure of the correlation measure, the exiting measures are systemized, and the properties and applicable corditions are summarized， respectively. Secondly, based on the development of correlation measures and the challanges of big data era, some conditions for meeting association measure are put forward to respond to meetting association measure challeges. Finally， some correlation measures in multi-modal data analysis are discussed and combed, and some ideas are provided to deal with the space conversion from three different angles, which attract more in depth thinking and research, therefore promoting the progress on big data mining.