If the underlying distributions are not normal and the sample sizes are large, the use of the \(t\) distribution is justified by the central limit theorem => CI and HT approx. valid.
In such a case, however, there is little difference between the t and normal distributions.
If the sample sizes are small, however, and the distributions are not normal, conclusions based on the assumption of normality cannot be tested effectively unless the deviation is quite gross as we saw in Chapter 9.