How can the debugging process be improved in PHP when encountering errors related to function returns and recursive calls, as demonstrated in the forum thread?

Issue: When encountering errors related to function returns and recursive calls in PHP, it can be helpful to use print statements or var_dump to inspect the return values and parameters being passed between functions. This can help identify where the issue lies and how to correct it.

function recursiveFunction($n) {
    if ($n <= 0) {
        return 0;
    }
    
    // Recursive call
    $result = recursiveFunction($n - 1);
    
    // Debugging output
    var_dump($n, $result);
    
    return $result + $n;
}

// Call the recursive function
echo recursiveFunction(5);