Both calls are probably broken, and you don't know it. In the current state, you're just updating the server with the parameters object instead of the real data.
When passing a single object on non-GET actions, it's passed as the data for update. From the docs:
The action methods on the class object or instance object can be invoked with the following parameters:
...
- non-GET "class" actions:
Resource.action([parameters], postData, [success], [error])
So it is just a misuse of the action method. Send the data object for update after the action parameters, and you're good to go:
element.update({ 'name': name, 'value': value }, dataObject);